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THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 



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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



THE MANAGEMENT OF 
A CITY SCHOOL 



BY 



ARTHUR C. PERRY, JR., Ph.D. 

PRINCIPAL OF PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 83 
BROOKLYN, N.Y. 



Kto fgorft 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1908 

All rights reserved 



LIBRARY of OoSHil 
j Two Copies Secesvuia • 

MAR 231908 

OUSfc 4 AXc, wo, 



Copyright, 1908, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1908. 



NotfoflflB $)xe88 

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Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



PREFACE 

" His is the life, the impulse of the school, its controlling 
and directing power, its inspiration and its hope." 

— Superintendent Howland on "The School Principal." 

In treating of the management of a school it 
has seemed most natural to group the topics about 
its central figure, the principal. The fact that 
this is the point of view will not lessen, it is hoped, 
the legitimate interest which the superintendent 
on the one hand and the class teacher on the 
other may take in the discussion. 

Because of their variant local uses, certain 
terms, as employed in this book, are here de- 
fined : — 

Supervisor is the generic term for all persons 
in positions of direct or indirect supervisory 
authority over teachers. 

A Principal is the administrative officer 
directly in charge of a number of teachers and 
classes, in one or more buildings ; known vari- 
ously as a head master, a supervising principal, 
a district principal, etc. 



vi PREFACE 

A School is the unit of organization in charge 
of a principal. 

An Elementary school is one whose pupils are 
taken through only the seventh, eighth, or ninth 
school years and then promoted into the secondary 
or high school. 

Grade is applied to the group of pupils doing 
the same level of work; the grades are desig- 
nated by numbers indicating the pupil's year in 
school, with a literal suffix indicating the first 
or second half of the year, the successive grades 
being iA, iB, 2 A, 2B, 3 A, etc. 

Class is applied to the group of pupils under 
a single teacher, in a single room ; thus there 
may be in a large school two or more classes of 
any one grade, or in a small school two or more 
grades in one class. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Introduction i 

Scope, 2 ; The city school, 3 ; System, 4 ; Plan of treat- 
ment, 5. 

II. The Principal and the State .... 8 
Twofold relation, 9 ; The general relation, 9 ; The pro- 
fessions, 12; Teaching, 15; General obligations, 17; The 
special relation, 24. 

III. The Principal and the Public .... 35 

The parents, 35 ; Cooperation and independence, 37 ; 
Parents 1 meetings, 40 ; Parents' associations, 42 ; The 
parent-complainant, 43 ; Other visitors, 53. 

IV. The Principal and the Authorities . . -58 

The school board, 59 ; The business bureau, 61 ; The 
superintendent, 63 ; Strict and loose construction, 72. 

V. The Principal and the Teachers .... 75 
Selection of the teacher, 75 ; Assignment, 78 ; Informal 
assistance, 80 ; Instructions, 86 ; Teachers' meetings, 88 ; 
Criticism, 90 ; Planning quantity, 91 ; The course of study, 
91 ; Plan and progress records, 94; Daily time schedule, 
96 ; Planning quality, 102 ; Uniform methods, 102 ; Corre- 
lation, 103 ; Pupils' work, 103 ; Model lessons, 108 ; Rating 
of teachers, 1 1 1 ; Special teachers, 116; Clerks, 117; Assist- 
ant principals, 118. 

VI. The Principal and the Pupils: The Material 

Equipment 121 

The school building, 122 ; Heating and ventilation, 126 ; 
Supplies, 129; Selection, 131; Requisitioning, 132; Care, 
134; School decoration, 140. 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

VII. The Principal and the Pupils' Physical Welfare 144 
General care. 144; Physical protection, 152; Entrance 
and exit, 169. 

VIII. The Principal and the Pupils' Scholastic Prog- 
ress 178 

The admission of pupils, 178; The grading of pupils, 
179 ; The departmental plan, 183 ; Rating of pupils, j£2 ; 
Promotion of pupils, 196; The class-room work, 205; 
Examinations, 214. 

IX. The Principal and the Pupils' Moral Develop- 
ment 242 

Discipline, 242 ; General principles, 243 ; Specific 
methods, 260 ; Self-government, 283 ; Attendance and 
punctuality, 290 ; Truancy, 295 ; Habits and ideals, 299 ; 
School spirit, 303. 

X. The Principal and the Principalship . . . 309 
His qualifications for the office, 309 ; His adjustment to 
his position, 317; His personal growth, 320; The posi- 
tion itself, 322. 

Appendix - . . . .331 

Examination questions in " School Management." 
Index 341 



THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 



THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY 
SCHOOL 

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION 

, Notwithstanding that "the principal of the 
school is the single time-honored official found in 
a modern school system" 1 and "the key of the 
educational system," 2 and that "as the principal 
is, so is the school," in the literature of pedagogy 
there has been no work devoted exclusively to the 
duties and* problems of his position. Many helpful 
volumes have been written on the broad topics of 
educational history, methods, and principles, and 
in the field of administration a few authors treat 
very adequately the subject of class-room manage- 
ment; but upon assuming the duties of a princi- 

1 Charles B. Gilbert, "The School and Its Life," New York, 
1906, p. 201. 

2 William Estabrook Chancellor, "Our Schools — Their Admin- 
istration and Supervision," Boston, 1905, p. 103. 



2 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

palship the teacher finds no special literature 
upon the subject of his new position. He is thus 
thrown considerably upon his own resources. It 
is not to be denied that this enforced self-reliance 
is in itself somewhat of an advantage, but it com- 
pels the principal to learn by experience, often- 
times disagreeable if not painful, much which he 
would have been glad to have had presented to 
him in book form at the outset of his executive 
career. The present work aims to meet this need. 

Some statements may seem trite. Nevertheless they 
may not have been systematically brought to the atten- 
tion of the prospective principal, so that their presentation 
here may help him to fix upon definite policies. 

Some of the topics may seem trivial. But the whole 
atmosphere of a school is largely dependent upon the 
attention given by the competent principal to matters of 
detail. It must be remembered, too, that the needs of 
different readers are not identical, so that what may be 
a commonplace to one may be of value to another. 

Two equally attractive temptations have been 
resisted : to reach up into the problems of the 
school superintendent, and to reach down into the 
detail of the work of the class teacher. A discus- 
sion of the broader questions of school adminis- 



INTRODUCTION 3 

tration — such as the financing of systems, the 
coordination of schools, the functions of school 
boards, the construction of courses of study — would 
be interesting; but these are outside the range of 
the principal's daily work, and moreover they have 
already elicited an extensive and valuable litera- 
ture which is at the command of the thoughtful 
principal. So, too, with the more intimate prob- 
lems of the class teacher, which chiefly demand 
a mastery of general and special method. What 
has been attempted is to build upon a broad 
foundation of rational philosophy a superstructure 
of the more important principles which should 
guide the principal in the administration of his 
school. 

The conditions assumed are those which con- 
front the principal of the city public school of 
elementary grade. The district school of a class 
or two, — concerning which have been written 
most of the books on " school management," — or 
the town school of four or five rooms with a 
teacher in charge, does not measurably present 
the problems which are here considered. But to 
the principal of from 10 to 80 classes, enroll- 
ing from 500 to 4000 pupils, there are continually 



4 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

presented perplexing problems which demand ma- 
ture thought and keen judgment. As there has 
been a rapid increase in the number and size of 
corporations and "tpufsts" formed, so the political 
economists tell us^for the more perfect and eco- 
nomical accomplishment of commercial ends, there 
has been a parallel tendency in school administra- 
tion to place in the hands of a single principal a 
school or schools so large as to demand the ability 
and energy of a veritable " captain of industry." 
It is not in order to discuss the advantages or 
disadvantages of this passing of the old-time school- 
master and the advent of the modern school 
manager; sufficient is it to realize that such a 
transition is taking place, and to examine into the 
requirements of the new position. 

Recognizing the fact, the principal of to-day must 
be ready to apply the same business principles to 
the handling of the business side of his school as 
are employed by any other manager of large inter- 
ests. In order to exert the full measure of his 
influence, he must do his work systematically, accu- 
rately, and promptly. 

He must even be prepared to face the appalling charge 
often flaunted before him by the jealous, the misunder- 



INTRODUCTION 5 

standing, or the incapable, of being too systematic. " Red- 
tape" will be the indefinite accusation. On this subject of 
system, we may lay down a few guiding and restraining 
propositions. Red-tape is unjustifiable system. All sys- 
tem should be merely a means to worthy ends ; never re- 
garded as the end itself. When a system ceases to sim- 
plify, it becomes red-tape. When a system is followed for 
itself and not for what it can do, it becomes red-tape. 
Whenever system becomes red-tape it should be aban- 
doned ; systems are made for men, not men for systems. 

If system along any line of his work simplifies 
that work and thus conserves the energy of the 
principal, leaving him more of it to put into the 
professional side of his work, it becomes his duty 
to adopt it. Hence, throughout these pages, sys- 
tematic treatment of the various phases of adminis- 
tration is recommended, not that the particular 
methods cited are unique or the best, but that 
they have tried advantages and may suitably 
serve as suggestions. 

With topics which permit of serious difference of 
opinion, the aim has been to present both sides of 
the question with equal fullness and with sufficient 
submergence of possible personal bias. 

The large school with which we are concerned 
is one of many in a city or town system of 



6 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

public education. The principal is thus brought 
into relation with higher authorities, — a School 
Board, a Superintendent, perhaps a Board of Superin- 
tendents, — so that we must look into this relation- 
ship, which is done under the caption "The Principal 
and the Authorities." 

On his other hand are the principal's coworkers, 
the teachers. Upon the relationship which he estab- 
lishes with them will his success mainly depend, so 
that a chapter is devoted to this topic. 

Throughout the book I refer, for the sake of clearness, 
to the principal as he and the teacher as she, though I am 
not unmindful that there are many women principals and 
many men teachers in our schools. The reader will please 
not to take exception to the arbitrary selection of pro- 
nouns, but accept it as a simple means to a desirable end. 

In addition to these official relationships there 
is to be considered the relation of the principal to 
the formal public, known in the text-books as 
The State, and that more concrete public which 
comes daily into his office on various errands, 
many legitimate and sincere, but alas! too many 
others mercenary or meddling. 

It is not to be forgotten, however, that the very 
existence and maintenance of the schools is in behalf 



INTRODUCTION 7 

of the pupils; and the matters of detail growing 
out of the principal's daily responsibility for the 
welfare of the children under his charge demand 
extended treatment. 

But after all, the ultimate element of success in a 
principal's career is the principal himself. It will 
be his personality, his devotion to duty and progress, 
that will make or mar his school. Hence the con- 
cluding chapter will consider The Principal and the 
Principalship. 



CHAPTER II 

THE PRINCIPAL AND THE STATE 

"The support of a system of public education 
out of the proceeds of taxation," says Dr. Adler, 1 
"is justifiable in the last analysis as a measure 
dictated to the State by the law of self-preservation." 
The State, through its departments of education, 
lecture bureaus, public libraries, museums, and other 

1 Felix Adler, "The Moral Instruction of Children," New York, 
1902, p. 11. Cf. "Education is the proper office of the State for two 
reasons. . . . Popular education is necessary for the preservation 
of those conditions of freedom, political and social, which are in- 
dispensable to free individual development. And, in the second 
place, no instrumentality less universal in its power and authority 
than government can secure popular education. In brief, in order 
to secure popular education, the action of society as a whole is neces- 
sary; and popular education is indispensable to that equalization 
of the conditions of personal development which we have taken to 
be the proper object of society. Without popular education, more- 
over, no government which rests upon popular action can long 
endure: the people must be schooled in the knowledge, and if 
possible in the virtues, upon which the maintenance and success 
of free institutions depend." — Woodrow Wilson, "The State," 
Boston, 1904, p. 638. 

8 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE STATE 9 

institutions, gives a broad definition to the phrase 
"a system of public education" ; but to the average 
citizen the word education is limited in its applica- 
tion to his and his neighbors' children, and in its 
content to their formal instruction in the Public 
School. It is the relation to the State of the ad- 
ministrative officer of a public school, known locally 
by various titles, but most frequently by that of 
Principal, that merits our present attention. 

At the outset we must distinguish between two 
fundamental relations which the principal bears to 
his work, to confuse which is hopelessly to cloud 
discussion. The principal's twofold relation is, on 
one side, broad and general, on the other, narrow 
and specific. His general relation is ill defined 
because it concerns his obligations to Society as a 
whole; his specific relation is well defined because 
he is a contractual agent of organized government. 

Treatment of the "general" relation will take 
the form of discussion rather than definition, because 
it must rest upon sociological premises; these are 
so at variance that, following one or another, we 
may arrive at quite antipodal conclusions. If we 
accept the laissez-faire philosophy and the statement 
that "we owe to each other good will, mutual 



io THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

respect, and mutual guarantees of liberty and 
security. Beyond this nothing can be affirmed 
as a duty of one group to another in a free State," * 
the discussion is already closed. But, without 
invading the precincts of socialism, we may recog- 
nize that civilized Society, in spite of the phi- 
losophers, has developed the doctrine that Oppor- 
tunity brings Responsibility. We need not here 
concern ourselves with the justice of the doctrine 
nor go into a discussion of its evolution. 

The misleading epigram that "all men are created 
equal" 2 served noble purposes in bygone days, 
but it has given place in the public "mind" to a 
series of ideas which, in so far as they can be caught 
and congealed into words, may perhaps be fairly 
expressed thus: it would be a pleasant condition 
if all men were born free and equal; but they are 

1 William Graham Sumner, "What Social Classes Owe to Each 
Other," New York, 1883, p. 169. 

2 "The platitudes of democracy are readily accepted by the crowd; 
the full depth of its principles is far from being easily understood. 
It is easy to cry, 'Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity,' and to carve 
the words in letters of stone upon public buildings and public monu- 
ments. It is not so easy to answer the query whether, in truth, un- 
restricted liberty and perfect equality are at all compatible." — Nicho- 
las Murray Butler, "The Meaning of Education," New York, 
1905, p. 106. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE STATE n 

not, and human ingenuity cannot reasonably expect 
to create this condition. This is not to say that we 
shall despair of the amelioration of present conditions, 
but that our hope is, not that every man shall be 
born into the world with equal equipment of body, 
mind, and "goods," but that every man shall have 
a free and independent "opportunity" to make the 
most of such equipment as is his. When equal free- 
dom and opportunity do become the heritage of 
each member of society, then presumably the obli- 
gations of its members will be distributed equally. 
In the meanwhile, taxes are levied in proportion 
to a man's wealth, — at least, that is the aim, — 
and society assumes that it likewise has the right 
to levy taxes upon the mental and moral wealth of 
its members. It is this assumption that renders 
necessary a consideration of the teacher's "general" 
relation to the State. 

When society has paid the laborer his dollar a day for 
digging a ditch, it considers the account closed ; if there were 
no "society," the laborer, alone in the forest, could by the 
output of equivalent labor support himself approximately 
a " dollar's worth." When society has paid the manu- 
facturer a million dollars a year for supplying it with the 
products of his mill, it considers the account still open; 
if there were no "society," the manufacturer, alone in the 



12 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

forest, could never, by the output of any conceivable 
labor, support himself a "million dollars' worth." Hence 
society asks the millionaire : What is your return to us for 
the opportunity which we have by our very existence given 
you to accumulate dollars? and the millionaire himself, 
recognizing the justice of the claim, 1 makes voluntary pay- 
ments upon the balance due society. 2 

There are certain classes of persons upon whom 
this non-monetary tax falls heaviest, viz. the workers 
in the professions. Of recent years the word pro- 

1 E.g. "This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: 
To set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning dis- 
play or extravagance ; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants 
of those dependent upon him; and, after doing so, to consider all 
surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he 
is called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty 
to administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calcu- 
lated to produce the most beneficial results for the community — 
the man of wealth thus becoming the mere trustee and agent for his 
poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, ex- 
perience, and ability to administer, doing for them better than they 
would or could do for themselves." — Andrew Carnegie, "The 
Gospel of Wealth," New York, 1900, p. 15. 

2 A prophet might predict that in time society will make the pay- 
ments less "voluntary" than they now are. For instance, instead of 
"protecting" a manufacturer so that his profits are ten million dollars 
a year, and accepting from him as a gratuity a single million, society 
may decide to "protect" the manufacturer less and itself more by 
taking the nine millions and leaving him the one million — but that 
is another story. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE STATE 13 

fession has fallen somewhat into disrepute owing 
to its loose popular application to those whose 
vocation is dancing or boxing or the cutting of 
corns. Originally limited to law, medicine, and 
theology, the present-day conservative use of the 
word is indicated by the Standard's definition: 
an occupation that properly involves a liberal edu- 
cation or its equivalent, and mental rather than 
manual labor. Notably two vocations, writing and 
teaching, are beginning to measure up to this criterion. 
It is safe to say that the education of the average 
school principal is fully as " liberal" as that of the 
average lawyer, physician, or minister. 

A liberal education is a form of opportunity 
provided by society; and so, in return, society de- 
mands a "general" service from the members of 
the professions in addition to the specific services 
for which its individuals pay by contract. The 
nature of this service can be, at best, but vaguely 
expressed, and yet the notion is surely present in 
the "mind" of society. The idea takes concrete 
expression in the expectation that the physician 
shall serve in any emergency without preliminary 
stipulation as to his fee, that the clergyman shall 
respond to a "call" outside his own church, that 



14 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

the lawyer shall not instigate litigation for the 
sake of profiting by its settlement — but it has a 
broader and still more ideal content. 

The physician has a specific relation to his indi- 
vidual patients. He is virtually under contract 
to render a certain amount of service for a given 
financial reward. But beyond this, society demands 
of him that he shall use his liberal education along 
his special lines for the "general" good. He is ex- 
pected to aid in the advance of medical science and 
to give his discoveries freely to society as a whole ; 
he is expected to advise society as to legislative 
measures necessary to its physical well-being and to 
agitate for their enactment ; indeed, he is expected 
to immolate his self-interest to the extent of so 
bettering conditions generally that he will be less 
needed specifically. 1 

The pastor or priest has his specific contractual 
relation to his church, but even when his special 
duties toward his parishioners have all been per- 
formed, society asks that he shall recognize and 
discharge his general obligation. As the representa- 

1 For instance, it is the physicians who see that our houses are dis- 
infected after a case of contagious disease, notwithstanding that it 
would be more "profitable" to them if they kept this secret to 
themselves, 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE STATE 15 

tives of the institution whose aim is the leading 
of its followers in the paths of righteousness, the 
clergy are expected to advance the moral health of 
society just as the physicians protect and advance 
its bodily health. 

Similarly, the lawyer has a broader obligation 
than is implied by his contractual relation with his 
clients. As a member of his profession, he is ex- 
pected to contribute freely of his learning toward 
civic progress and the betterment of organized 
government. 1 

Parallel to these three lines of thought must be 
drawn a fourth, dealing with the profession of 
teaching. In proportion as the educator is himself 
"liberally" educated, society imposes upon him an 
extra-contractual obligation. 

A crude though very concrete phase of this is the way 
in which any teacher, especially in rural districts, is pur- 
sued by people who have no contractual claim upon him, 
and plied with intellectual puzzles, for the solution of 
which he, ex officio, is supposed to be especially respon- 
sible. 

1 Witness the fact that society "honors" one form of this service 
to the extent that a lawyer will gladly relinquish a $20,000 practice 
for a $10,000 judgeship. Also, the influence of Bar Associations 
upon judiciary elections. 



16 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

The president of any one of our great universities 
is credited with having a general survey of the 
educational world and its needs, and this very 
equipment makes it his duty to use it in public 
service without remuneration. As an illustrious 
example, consider the present head of Harvard 
University. For years his specific duties toward 
that institution have been performed on a definite 
basis of service rendered for cash paid. And yet 
what a chill such a cold commercial statement must 
give to even a callous reader. How much larger 
has been the devoted service of Dr. Eliot to thousands 
of individuals and to society as a whole than the 
financial return which society has given him. It 
is this difference between the two norms that meas- 
ures the " general" obligation which he has ful- 
filled, based upon his liberal education and his mem- 
bership in a profession — that is, upon opportunity. 
But we are driven back to the axiom that all men 
are not created equal and to the further truth that 
all men are not created even with the same oppor- 
tunity. It is not given to every lawyer to sit upon 
the Supreme Court bench, nor to every physician 
to make a revolutionizing discovery, nor to every 
clergyman to initiate some great Reform, nor to 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE STATE 17 

every educator to guide a university; nevertheless, 
every member, in proportion to his opportunity, 
has his own "general" obligation. And this brings 
us down to the school principal. Let us glance at 
a few of his general obligations. 

1. In any American community the "liberally" 
educated men are chiefly to be found among the 
physicians, lawyers, editors, and clergy, and it is 
to these that the people look for practical guidance 
along lines relating to the general welfare. The 
school principals should be found in this class. 
If they are not, it can mean only that they are not 
liberally educated, and that for that particular 
community teaching is not a profession. It is all 
too true that the negative condition is widely prev- 
alent, but the needs of society require that teach- 
ing shall become a profession. Hence the duty of 
every teacher to assist in bringing about that con- 
dition. 

Any city that appointed to its teaching positions only 
broadly educated and specially trained men and women, 
paying salaries to compare favorably with those of simi- 
larly equipped men and women elsewhere, would, even on 
the large money-capital required, receive enormous divi- 
dends in the improved financial, physical, mental, and 



18 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

moral welfare of its rising generation of citizens. This 
would mean that every teacher would be university- 
trained — a condition far removed from that of the pres- 
ent day. Moreover, it would be impossible practically to 
establish this condition by any other method than one of 
gradual extension of requirements. It is fortunate that 
the trend is in that direction ; but equally unfortunate is it 
that so few teachers encourage the forward movement, the 
many not realizing that their very self-interest, if no higher 
motive, should make them sympathize with it. In nearly 
every city, if the requirements of eligibility are raised, the 
teachers themselves protest; rather should they indorse 
every such measure; indeed, it should be they who take 
the initiative. 

Presumably, the principals of city schools repre- 
sent a selection from among the best teachers. 
They therefore owe primarily this duty to society: 
to convince it that it is to its interest to establish 
teaching as a profession, and to convince their 
fellow-teachers that it is to their interest to secure 
professional recognition. 1 

1 Cf . ". . . it appears the duty of every educational man to be 
diligent in molding educational sentiment, and in giving trend to 
educational thought. His professional duty is not circumscribed to 
the schoolroom or the office; he must face about and voice to the 
public their own latent ideas and purposes, and crystallize their 
convictions into active educational forces." — Arnold Tompkins, 
"The Philosophy of School Management," Boston, 1898, p. 102. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE STATE 19 

2. Notwithstanding the reluctance of society to 
put the business of teaching upon a professional 
footing, at least the individual principal can, in his 
own community, win personal recognition as to his 
fitness for professional consideration — indeed, this 
takes rank as one of his " general" duties. If he 
himself has not had a liberal education in its formal 
sense, he should get it ; or if he has had formal educa- 
tion, he should broaden and deepen it by continued 
study and reflection. Society will take him as it 
finds him, and it will estimate him much as he 
fairly estimates himself. If he rests comfortably 
in a snug official position from which he cannot be 
disturbed so long as he renders even perfunctory 
time-service, his fellow-citizens will class him, and 
that but casually, as an accident enjoying a public 
"snap," a "feeder at the public crib"; if, on the 
contrary, he proves himself liberally educated, if he 
regards his office as the agency through which he 
renders public service, if he identifies himself with 
professional men and women, with the leaders of 
public thought, his community will award him 
professional credentials, and through him the teach- 
ing vocation will gain measurably in dignity and 
recognition. 



20 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

3. If "the school is only an institution for 
providing environments, for turning environmental 
forces to a definite and conscious end," * and if, 
for the time, we regard the word environment in its 
popular rather than in its technical sense, it is 
clearly a "general" duty of the principal correctly 
to appraise the particular environmental forces 
operative in his community. In this he is con- 
sidering his school in its institutional phase, and 
himself, as the head of the institution. As such, 
he must take into account its correlated institutions, 
both universal and local. The family and the 
church, though universal throughout the civilized 
world, are subject to wide local variations. The 
family life of one American community differs 
considerably from that of another, so that the 
principal must make a close estimate of its local 
character. Similarly must he measure and evaluate 
the particular religious influences at work in his 
district as well as such local forces as newspapers, 
libraries, museums, charitable and benevolent founda- 
tions, and industrial institutions. His duty toward 
these factors of institutional environment is not 

1 William Chandler Bagley, "The Educative Process," New York, 
1907, p. 36. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE STATE 21 

alone that he shall understand them, but that he 
shall take his part as a man of liberal education in 
acting with them and reacting upon them. 

4. It is as a professional expert that the prin- 
cipal has his chief " general" duty. Society may 
justly expect him to contribute his share to the 
philosophy and science of education, and to act, 
as it were, on its board of advisers when it formu- 
lates its educational policies. 

The general public is intimately acquainted with edu- 
cation chiefly as an "art" practiced by the teachers it 
knows. Few realize that this art is based upon sound 
principles which in their systematic collation constitute 
the "science" of education. The fact that it is not an 
"exact" science, and presumably never can become such, 
does not, of course, remove it from the scientific class. 1 

The astronomer deals with masses and forces; the 
educator deals with minds and masses and forces. To 
the layman the work and the accomplishments of the 
astronomer are picturesque and mystifying; the pro- 
phetic discovery of a Neptune is startling, and scents of 
wizardry ; surely, says he, astronomy is indeed a science ! 

1 "Only the sciences based upon mathematics are exact or lay 
claim to exactness; all others are descriptive only, and wider ex- 
perience or further observation may modify their conclusions at any 
time. A science of education is analogous to a science of medicine." 
— Butler, op. tit., p. x. 



22 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

But the discovery of Neptune was but a patient study in 
the decomposition of forces, a process of deduction from 
established principles. Education is a study in the 
decomposition of the forces that produce the complete 
man. As compared to those in the physical realm, these 
forces are immeasurably greater in number and variety. 
The new-born babe is far more complex than a solar 
system; the educated man is even more marvelously 
complex; to convert the one into the other is a task 
beside which regulating the gear of the planets is play. 

Because its phenomena are complex, its data unlimited, 
its generalizations tentative, does not preclude scientific 
treatment of the subject of education. 

Like all other scientists, the student of education 
must be continually testing and retesting its prin- 
ciples. It does not do to be too dogmatic even 
in the material sciences — we may yet discard the 
law of gravitation. The educator, working in the 
realm of psychological forces and mental com- 
plexes, must ever be a skeptic. When some peda- 
gogic enthusiast or journalistic theorist, 1 with an air 

1 " Opinion serves for information, and prejudice usurps the place 
of principle. The popular journals and the printed proceedings of 
educational associations teem with perfectly preposterous contribu- 
tions bearing the signatures of worthy and distinguished men, who 
would not dream of writing dogmatically upon a physical, a bio- 
logical, or a linguistic problem. For some recondite reason they 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE STATE 23 

of finality, promulgates "the" principles of educa- 
tion, the conscientious and cautious student waits, 
waits and sees most of the "principles" utterly 
demolished by scientific testing. This is not to 
imply that scientific generalization has no place, 
but that it should be done by the scientifically 
equipped, and the results accepted only as working 
hypotheses. Educational theory, meaning its tenta- 
tive generalizations, shifts pendulously, and we 
may question whether it will ever reach a state of 
equilibrium. The principal, of all school people, 
must not lose his balance and himself swing too 
far or too frequently. He will maintain a scientific 
attitude, accepting new theories, not as laws of the 
Medes and Persians, but as hypotheses to be tested 
in the laboratory of his school and his own thought. 
This may often bring him into disagreement with 
his fellow-educators, and he must conduct himself 
with fairness and courtesy, recognizing the rights 
of others to their opinions and maintaining his 
own right to his. 

Above all, society expects the educator, as it 
expects the physician, as a professional expert, 

face the equally difficult and unfamiliar problems of education 
without a tremor." — Butler, op. ciL, p. 94. 



24 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

fearlessly and freely to contribute his individual, 
honest convictions on technical questions. If the 
educational policy of society is not to be molded 
by the practical educators, including the school 
principals, by whom, then, is it to be molded? 
Shall the school men shirk their plain duty to the 
State, and leave it to be performed by the liberally 
educated men of the other professions, or, what so 
frequently is the sad case, by unintelligent repre- 
sentatives of the people ? 1 

The above outline of the principal's "general" 
relation to the State has been given with intentional 
"sketchiness." It has been emphasized, however, 
in order that it may serve as a background against 
which the succeeding discussion of his "special" 
relation may stand out in bold relief. 

The State, through its organized institution of 
government, establishes and supports schools. In 
America, education is a function exercised by the 
State governments. We have no federal system; 
we have no municipal systems, properly speaking. 
The administration of its school affairs by the city is 

1 Arizona, March 4, 1905, added to the membership of its terri- 
torial Board of Education two principals or superintendents of 
graded or high schools, to be appointed by the Governor. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE STATE 25 

not an inherent right, but one which, like its other 
municipal functions, it receives at the hands of 
the State through statutory instruments known as 
charters. The State reserves to itself its function 
as public educator, but, for economy and efficiency 
in administration, tentatively * delegates the detailed 
exercise of that function to its corporate munici- 
palities. 2 

The definite relation of the State to the city varies 
throughout the country, and the principal should 
have a clear understanding of that relation as it 
exists between his State and his city. 

Likewise, the exact form of the contract which he 
makes is a matter of local variation. Technically, 
he is not an officer of either the State or the city, 
but an employee; therefore he has a contractual 
and not an official position. Whatever the local 
differences, the condition essentially is this: the 

1 Tentatively, because States frequently resume the exercise of 
functions previously delegated to the cities, e.g. Illinois, May 12, 
1905, repealed Sec. 29 of the laws of 1889, permitting cities of 
30,000 to 100,000 population to examine and license public school 
teachers. 

2 Acting through legislative bodies variously known by the titles: 
School Board, Board of Education, School Committee, Board of 
School Directors, etc. 



26 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

principal is under contract whereby, in considera- 
tion of a stated salary, he is to administer the affairs 
of a particular school in accordance with the terms 
of his contract. These terms are usually in the 
main only implicit, 1 but legally they are as binding 
as if explicitly stated in his contract. The chief 
sources of the " terms" are the State constitution, 
the State laws, the municipal charter, and the by- 
laws, rules, and regulations of the School Board. 
With these the principal should be as familiar as 
he is with the other side of his contract — that which 
states the number of dollars and cents that con- 
stitute his remuneration. 

The duties arising from his general relation to 
the State, as indicated above, are not included in 
the principal's contract. It is to be presumed 
that he will meet the obligations of that contract 
and perform his specific duties on a working basis 
of sound philosophy and in a spirit of progressive 
scholarship, but his fundamental relation to his 
school is not pedagogical, but legal. This distinc- 

1 "If, in the light of the present-day experiences, one may be 
permitted to pass an opinion, it would be that both boards of edu- 
cation and teachers are in need of legislative protection and prohi- 
bitions in this matter of contract obligations." — Professor Edward 
C. Elliott in Bulletin No. 3, 1906, Bureau of Education, p. 79. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE STATE 27 

tion must be accurately drawn and kept constantly 
in view. 

To illustrate, consider the case of a New York City 
principal who has certain well-formed administrative 
opinions, gained by fruitful experience and conscientious 
thinking, among them, for instance : (1) that once a term 
is as frequently as his school should be put through a 
fire drill ; x (2) that the principal should not be required 
to have technical knowledge of the janitor's duties in run- 
ning the heating plant ; and (3) that the principal should 
have the power to reduce pupils in grade without reference 
or report of the fact to his superiors. The facts are: 
(1) a State law provides that he shall exercise his school 
in a fire drill once a month, subject to a fine of $50 in case 
of neglect; and the by-laws of the Board of Education 
provide (2) that he shall have responsible supervision of 

1 His chief argument would probably be that there is an element 
of danger even in the "drill," and that this risk should be incurred 
very infrequently. Such a position is not here defended. The 
subject of emergency dismissals is fully discussed later (p. 172), and 
the reference to it here, as to the other topics, is only to give point 
to the supposititious case cited. It may be noted, in passing, that 
the St. Louis rule reads: "Principals shall pay special attention to 
the prompt and orderly dismissal of their pupils at the close of school, 
and also to the dismissal for recess. They shall use this daily prac- 
tice in lieu of a special fire drill and assign to each teacher her station 
and business during such dismissal, so that in case of emergency 
when the school is to be dismissed quickly, the habit of good order 
acquired by such daily practice may help to prevent a panic." — 
Regulation IV, Sec. XXIII. 



28 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

the janitor as to the operation of the heating apparatus; 
and (3) that, upon reducing a pupil in grade, he shall 
report the fact to his superintendent, who has the power 
to reverse his action. The principal may be sincere in 
his belief that the best interests of the schools require 
their administration in accordance with his opinions, but 
it is. clear that he has no option in the matter. He is 
under contract to administer his school contrary, if it so 
happens, to his own opinions — his pedagogy must yield 
to law. This is his special relation . to his school, but, 
as we have seen, his duty does not end here. His 
general relation implies that in proportion as he feels 
the unwisdom of the law, he shall exercise his extra-con- 
tractual obligation to society, and, while punctiliously 
complying with the law, strenuously advocate its amend- 
ment. Only by performing this general duty can he dis- 
charge his full obligation to the State. 

Nor must the principal betray any emotion in 
performing his legal duties when they discord with 
what he considers good educational practice. The 
law is an impersonal expression, albeit it is the 
consensus of personal opinions. The place for 
strong feeling for or against a law is in the course 
of its enactment or in the advocacy of its repeal 
— never in its execution. 

To select an extreme case by way of illustration, capital 
punishment is administered by law. The hangman has a 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE STATE 29 

citizen's — we might say an expert's — right to advocate 
the repeal of that law, but it is evident that in executing 
its provisions he has no right to "half" hang his subject, 
or to hang him with intentional bungling, or to com- 
miserate with him on the injustice of the law, or in any 
other way to permit his personal opinions to affect the 
discharge of his official duty. It is not to be forgotten, 
either, that he is privileged — indeed that he ought — 
to resign his office whenever the conditions imposed are 
in such conflict with his personal views as to prevent his 
" obeying orders." 

The proposition that, when they are in conflict, 
his pedagogical opinions must yield to the provisions 
of his legal contract, supports the corollary that 
the principal must make a thorough study into his 
own legal status. In case of dispute, it is far better 
that he be justified by statute law than by peda- 
gogic theory; only when the law is silent may 
the theory speak. It is of prime importance that 
he shall know, in the administration of his school, 
what, by law : (1) he may do ; (2) he must do ; (3) he 
must not do, — i.e. his rights, his duties, and his 
limitations. As to his rights, he will exercise them 
without fear or favor; as to his duties, he will dis- 
charge them honestly and completely; as to his 
limitations, he will frankly admit them and respect 



3 o THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

them; and all this, as has been suggested, he will 
do dispassionately. 

This last proposition seems axiomatic; yet it is 
so very frequently violated in practice that further 
exposition may not be misplaced. 

i. The legal rights of the principal will be ques- 
tioned frequently by parents and occasionally by 
his official superiors ; but, conscious only of the re- 
sponsibility placed upon him, he will never " flaunt " 
his authority. The fact that he is right is all- 
sufficient — it does not need obtrusive reiteration. 
He has but to cite the law, not to justify nor vindi- 
cate it. Nor should he betray irritation that his 
authority has been called into question; that it 
should be, is but a natural feature in the to- 
pography of his position — it is all in the day's 
work. 

2. The principal will perform his legal duties 
to the best of his ability and in the exercise of that 
judgment for which he is paid and which, it is to 
be assumed, he possesses. But always will he be 
subject more or less to petty interference based upon 
the contrary assumption, that his administrative 
judgment, because, forsooth he is a descendant of 
Ichabod Crane, is not quite so reliable as is that 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE STATE 31 

of the "business" man with equal responsibilities. 
It is a curious fact that the member of a Board of 
Education, who, in his private business, would not 
hold his department heads responsible for results 
without leaving them unhampered in working out 
the details of their respective departments, will 
appoint a man to the principalship of a public 
school, hold him for results, and then seriously 
interfere with the detailed work of his office. 1 
Happily, this state of affairs seems to be gradually 
righting itself, probably through the increasing 
ability of school men to demonstrate their fitness for 
responsibility. This is officially recognized by law 
in many cities. 2 But the judgment of the best of 
business men occasionally goes wrong, and there is 

x "The question why there is not the same advance in the work 
and methods of the schools as there is in the work and methods of 
the industrial, commercial, and business institutions has never re- 
ceived the serious thought and consideration of a rational and think- 
ing public it deserves." — Edwin F. Moulton, former Superin- 
tendent of Instruction, Cleveland. 

2 "Principals of schools are the responsible administrative heads 
of their respective schools. . . ." — New York City, By-Laws, 
Sec. 43, par. 1. 

"Principals of schools are the responsible administrative heads 
of their respective schools." — Philadelphia, Rules, XVII, Sec. 1. 

"The principal of each school is vested with authority to carry 



32 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

no reason why the principal should not be allowed 
a small percentage of " errors" without being con- 
demned utterly. The point to be emphasized here 
is the attitude of the principal toward his own 
administrative mistakes. He must frankly recog- 
nize them, cheerfully acknowledge them, faithfully 
repair them, and progressively prevent their re- 
currence. If he indulge in any irritation, he must 
be sure that it is directed toward himself, where it 
rightfully belongs. 

3. The legal limitations of the principal are many, 
— in fact, it might be argued that in public posi- 
tions generally, the higher the office, the greater 
the number of limitations which surround it, — 
and they should be recognized more promptly and 
more clearly by the principal himself than by any 
one else. He should be the first, when occasion 
arises, to point them out ; at least, he should be the 
last to show feeling because they exist. This, of 
course, does not preclude his questioning them 

into effect the rules and orders of the School Board. . . ." — Louis- 
ville, Rules, Art. I, Sec. 3, Rule 1. 

" Principals shall be held responsible for the general management 
of their several schools." — Indianapolis, Rules, Art. XIV, Sec. 1. 

"The principal shall have the supervision and control of his 
school. . . ." — Jersey City, Rules, Principals, I. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE STATE 33 

intelligently and dispassionately, in his extra-con- 
tractual capacity as an educational expert, but 
this, again, belongs to his general relation. 

Specific instances illustrative of the above principles 
could be multiplied, but two will suffice. (1) The New 
York State law provides that no pupil shall be admitted 
to a public school unless he has been properly vaccinated. 
Many physicians and others agitate for a repeal of this 
law, sincerely disbelieving in the efficacy of vaccination. 
Protest is occasionally made by the parent to the prin- 
cipal that his child "ought" to be admitted without 
having been vaccinated. The parent may be openly 
vehement or insidiously persuasive. It is clear that 
the principal has the single duty of refusing to admit the 
child. He may himself agree with the parent as to the 
law, may be one of the agitators for its repeal, or he may 
believe thoroughly in the law and regard the parent's 
fears as sheer foolishness ; but in his office he simply states 
the law, unmoved, by either vehemence or persuasion, to 
any display of emotion. (2) The by-laws in a certain city 
provided that no teacher should leave the school building 
at the noon intermission without the consent of the prin- 
cipal. The rules were amended so that the teachers 
might leave unless expressly required by the principal to 
remain. This, it is seen, was a limitation upon the former 
power of the principals: formerly, the initiative and the 
burden of proof were upon the teachers; latterly, upon 
the principals. Some principals assiduously refrained 



34 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

from letting their teachers know of the change, not liking 
to acknowledge even this slight limitation upon their 
authority. Others immediately notified their teachers of 
the new status. 1 Although a trivial example apparently, it 
points the distinction between administration by personal 
feeling and administration by dignified execution of law. 

Enough has been said to establish the broad 
distinction between the general, philosophic duties 
of the principal and his specific, contractual duties. 
It is these latter which come properly within the 
purview of this volume, so that henceforward little 
direct reference will be made to the larger field. 
Throughout the subsequent discussion, the reader 
will scan the author's prose of technical details 
to the rhythm of his own personal ideals. For, 
after all, this general duty of the school man to the 
State is just this: endeavoring to give concrete 
expression to his own ideals. It is a personal rite, 
determined by character itself; yet a matter of 
moment, for — and we may say it sanely — the 
future of the race depends upon the character and 
progressive ideals of its educators. 

1 Louisville makes such action mandatory. "The principal . . . 
shall immediately inform the teachers under his charge of any 
amendments to the Rules which relate to the duties of teachers." — 
Rules, Art. I, Sec. 3, Rule 1. 



CHAPTER III 

THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUBLIC 

It is a very concrete and personal public with 
which the principal comes into daily intercourse. 
Most numerous and most important of all the 
visitors to the school are the parents of the pupils 
therein. The spirit in which they are received, it 
must be confessed, varies considerably in different 
schools. One extreme type of principal assumes 
that as he is the expert and the parents are laymen, 
the affairs of the school are his business alone, and 
consequently that the parent has completely ful- 
filled his function when he has enrolled his child 
in the school. Some parents, by nature, and most 
parents when brought to it, will accept this status. 
If Dorothy does not learn her lessons, "Well," 
say they, "it is the business of the school to teach 
her"; if Richard misbehaves, it is no concern of 
theirs, "Are not the teachers paid to discipline him?" 
Technically and abstractly, this relation between 
school and parents is correct, and under certain 
idealized conditions perhaps tenable. But practi- 

35 



36 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

cally it cannot be maintained. A principal cannot 
consistently disregard the parents and successfully 
conduct his school on this basis. To attempt to do so 
implies that he would never enlist the cooperation 
of parents, nor even report to them upon the standing 
of pupils ; and that his contractual limitations are 
few and his general obligations scantily recognized. 
The type of principal at the other extreme is he 
who questions his own professional equipment, who, 
like some of his patrons, believes that "any one can 
teach," and who supinely surrenders to the exactions 
of unreasonable parents. Parents respond just as 
readily to this attitude as to the other. If the prin- 
cipal questions his own technical ability, why should 
they respect it? Moreover, there is something of 
the teacher in every one. The average American 
father has "views" on teaching — which, of course, 
in the long run is good for the cause of true educa- 
tion — and the average American mother thinks that 
her child, at least, can be educated without training. 
It is natural that there should be occasional differ- 
ences of opinion between principal and parents. Is 
he to ignore the parents or abdicate in their favor? 
Surely, neither. He may have both their coopera- 
tion and his own independence. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUBLIC 37 

The principal should seek the cooperation of 
the parents because: (1) usually his contract either 
explicitly or implicitly requires it ; (2) the legitimate 
interest of the parent in the school should be re- 
spected; 1 (3) the school should " recognize always 
the superiority of the home and its sacredness, 
and under no circumstances weaken the authority 
of the parent" ; 2 and (4) better results in instruction 
and discipline can be obtained with it than without 
it. He should maintain his own independence 
because: (1) his contract holds him and not the 
parents responsible for the work and results of his 
school; (2) he is better equipped technically than 
any parent, or else should not hold his office; and 
(3) the parents will the better respect him and the 
more intelligently cooperate with him. 

How he is to strike the balance between the de- 
mands of these two duties is one of the principal's 
problems which requires early solution. We may 
briefly dispose of the matter of the maintenance 
of his own administrative authority. This is de- 
pendent mainly upon his courteous but firm stand 

1 "The school is a halfway house between home and the world." 
— P. A. Barnett, "Common Sense in Education and Teaching," 
London, 1902, p. 48. 2 Gilbert, op. cit. t p. 225. 



3 8 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

with the individual parent, as occasion arises. To 
him he may explain exactly what his contractual 
obligations are, how necessary it is that any institu- 
tion shall be consistently administered by a respon- 
sible executive, and how much better the very 
interests of the parent and his children are conserved 
by vesting the principal with a measure of inde- 
pendence than by submitting the management of 
the school to the exactions of outsiders. 

But the principal and his school need the sym- 
pathetic cooperation of parents singly and col- 
lectively. This is to be attained measurably by 
his attitude toward individual parents as he meets 
them in the ordinary course of school business. 
By his manner and speech he may convince them 
that their interest in the school is welcomed and 
appreciated. But since most citizens have an in- 
adequate comprehension of the work of the school, 
gained secondhand through the reports of their 
own or their neighbors' children, the principal can- 
not depend solely upon the influence he exerts 
through these chance meetings with the occasional 
visitor. If the cooperation is to be intelligent and 
fruitful, he must take formal means of soliciting it. 

i. He may constantly advertise — through the 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUBLIC 



39 



pupils, at school exercises, at public meetings — the 
fact that he recognizes that the school is a public 
institution and belongs to the people, and hence, 
that it is their privilege to familiarize themselves 
with its work. They must be made to feel that they 
have a standing invitation to visit the school for the 
purpose of investigation, and that when they arrive 
they will be welcome. If the business man can 
be brought to spend an hour in the class room ob- 
serving the regular work of the teacher and pupils, 
he is much more likely to become a sympathetic 
supporter of the school and of the cause of public 
education than if subjected to hours of academic 
argument. 

It may be objected that the business of the school should 
not be interfered with to this extent, that the classes should 
not be disturbed in their work, and that the principal 
cannot give the time to visitors. In actual practice these 
objections are scarcely valid, because the response to the 
principal's invitation, however heartily and persistently 
it may be given, is usually anything but overwhelming. 
If each class had but a single visitor daily, a school of forty 
classes would receive nearly eight thousand visitors in the 
course of a year. The presence of a caller, or even of a 
number of callers, ought not to be a source of embarrass- 
ment to either teacher or pupils, who, with practice, would 



40 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

learn to welcome the visitor cordially, disregard him as a 
disturbing factor, and speed him on his way, enlightened 
and pleased. 1 As to the demand upon the principal's 
time, if he found that the number of visitors reached a 
serious total, he could readily enlist the services of older 
pupils to act, successfully and with profit to themselves, 
as hosts and guides. 

2. He may organize school exhibits, special 
exercises, and other meetings, to which parents are 
particularly and formally invited. The following 
general suggestions are submitted : — 

(i) In a large school the visitors may be received 
in groups, those who are interested in pupils in 
certain grades, for instance, being invited for certain 
different times and dates. 

(2) Evening meetings have the advantage of 
enabling more of the men to attend. Daytime 
meetings have the advantage of permitting the 
exhibit of regular class exercises. 2 

1 Superintendent Chancellor discusses the phase of the subject 
which considers that "the chief value of the visitor's appearance in 
the class room is in arousing the pupils." — "Our Schools," p. 121. 

2 "The means for making the school more effective in the home 
lives of its pupils are chiefly two. One of these is mothers' meetings. 
These are held in the schools of many of our cities. They are espe- 
cially valuable in the poor and foreign sections, since they bring the 
school and home into mutual sympathy, teach the mothers how to 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUBLIC 41 

(3) A carefully arranged programme should be 
provided. 

(4) Addresses by men and women of local or other 
prominence are extremely valuable. 

(5) An exhibit of the regular work of the pupils 
usually proves an attraction. This may include 
not only the written and tangible products, but also 
oral, musical, manual, and gymnastic exercises. 
In this case, each parent should be brought as 
close as possible to his own child's work. 

(6) Teachers should not use the occasion to make 
any adverse criticism of pupils to their parents. 
They should say only the good things about them, 
leaving anything unfavorable for a special inter- 
view at some other time. 

(7) Meetings gain in importance by coming not 
too frequently, and by being held on some significant 
date, such as the anniversary of the opening of the 
school. 

(8) The work of receiving and caring for visitors 
on these occasions may be distributed among the 
teachers, committees of whom may attend to the 

care for the physical and moral needs of their children, and implant 
in the homes some of the school's ideals." — George Edmund 
Myers, Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. XIII, 1906, p. 456. 



42 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

different features of the meeting. Older pupils can 
be drafted for service as ushers, etc. 

3. He may inspire the organization of Parents' 
Associations and act with them for the benefit of 
the school. The meetings of such an association 
will differ from those called by the principal, in that 
the principal will cease to exercise his authority as 
such and become only an incidental factor in the 
proceedings. The less conspicuous the part he 
takes in the meetings, the better able will he be to 
maintain a position coordinate with the association 
as a whole. Such an organization may do much 
for a school, not alone in rendering moral support, 
but also in raising money for decorations and equip- 
ment supplementary to that officially provided. But 
there is also the chance that, through ignorance of 
conditions or through personal ambitions or jealousies 
of members, the association may take some action 
which in effect is an interference with the principal's 
contractual authority. At such a time the principal 
must turn the enthusiasm of the association into 
more legitimate and profitable channels. This he 
can more easily and effectively do if he has pre- 
viously refrained from discussing measures volun- 
tarily from the floor during meetings. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUBLIC 43 

4. He may on occasion formally request the 
cooperation of the individual parent on behalf of 
his children. These occasions, arising chiefly from 
lapses of pupils in their work or behavior, are later 
discussed in their appropriate connections. 

But cooperation is not always the keynote struck 
by the parent in his song of the school. So long as 
children are incompetent witnesses, so long as it is 
a passion with some people to " shoot first and 
argue afterward," and so long as teachers are ter- 
rene, and share human frailties, just so long will 
there arise frequent misunderstandings between 
school and parents. Hence we must consider, 
however reluctantly, the case of the parent with a 
grievance ; and to get started aright we must go back 
to the fundamental relation of the principal to his 
school. The schools as we have noted are an in- 
strument of the State. The State supports the 
school. The State pays the salaries of the teachers 
for ministering to its children. Reduced to home- 
lier language, the parents of the pupils in his school 
are the principal's employers. Yet they are such 
only in the collective sense, although many of them 
will attempt to convince him that they are so in- 
dividually. The principal will receive the parent 



44 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

with a grievance, not alone with the respect due 
him as a gentleman, but also with the respect 
due a member of the great firm of The State, 
and will give him the attention necessary to 
secure justice for him, his child, and the school. 
But when the parent strives to secure for his child 
some specific consideration which is not his due 
and to grant which would be an injustice to the 
children of the other partners of the firm of The State, 
then must the principal stand steadfast against the 
parent's plea that he is a taxpayer and pays the 
principal's salary. 

Occasionally the unreasonable parent with the "tax- 
payer" argument aggressively foremost must be led to 
solve this little problem in the rule of three : "The amount 
of his taxes" is to "the total amount of taxes for the 
city" as x is to "the principal's salary." x, being his 
share of "payment" of the principal's salary, usually 
works out to some fraction of a cent. 

It' must not be supposed that all parents, or even any 
large number of them, who visit schools are unreason- 
able. The great majority of them are quite the other- 
wise, intelligent, well-meaning, and helpful. But un- 
fortunately the unreasonable parent exists and must be 
reckoned with, and as it is the " exceptional " case that 
makes the serious problem in school administration, the 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUBLIC 45 

emphasis must be placed here, as elsewhere, upon the 
exceptional occurrence. 

The first rule to follow in dealing with an unrea- 
sonable parent is to continue to assume that he is, 
or is going to become, reasonable. Many of the 
disputes which arise between the parents and the 
school are due to misunderstanding or lack of 
understanding on the parent's part. Acting upon 
this wrong understanding, the parents write irri- 
tating letters to the teachers or principal. It is 
good policy to answer all such letters. The tempta- 
tion is strong to ignore the communication, or else 
to reply in kind. If ignored, the parent is likely to 
follow the first letter with a second, written in greater 
temper, and perhaps follow that with a visit to the 
school, which he makes in no pleasant frame of mind, 
and which leads to a time-consuming interview. 
It is better that the school should take the parent 
at his word, assume that he is sincere in his com- 
munication regardless of the language in which it 
is couched, and reply with moderation and dignity 
and in the spirit of evident desire to correct the 
wrong impression of the school which the parent in 
some way has gained. Teachers should be trained 
to refer to the principal all communications of this 



46 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

character received by them. It is safer and better 
that the principal shall judge what communications 
shall be answered, and decide upon the nature of 
the reply, than that the individual teacher, acting 
under impulse, shall hastily dash off a rejoinder. 
The parent, receiving from the principal a dignified 
reply to a letter written to a teacher, realizes that 
he is being taken seriously, that the teacher has 
behind her the voice and authority of the principal, 
and that the school is taking patient and sincere 
cognizance of his grievance, whether it be real or 
fancied. In most cases it is unreal, for it must be 
remembered that it is based upon the testimony of 
a child, — his child, — and such testimony is by the 
nature of the case biased and unreliable. 1 Hence 
it requires but a few brief statements of fact to set 
the parent straight. These given, he becomes a 
friend and supporter of the school; withheld or 
given in a highly colored or hot-tempered way, 
he becomes a critic of the school and instigator of 
further trouble. 

1 "Despite the fact that the law has always recognized the total 
incapacity of children to see, to remember, and to express the truth, 
the testimony of children regarding teachers continues to be taken. 
Such testimony is almost worthless." — Chancelloe, " Our Schools," 
P- 34i. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUBLIC 47 

That it may be realized that parents do send hastily 
written notes, based on error, a few such letters, actually 
received in a city school, are here given, together with the 
replies in each case : — 

(1) 

Miss Smith, 

It is unusual for Victor to get such a low mark in de- 
portment I think you have made a great mistake. I 
have erased same on his card Trusting you will recon- 
sider this, you will oblige me very much. 

Mrs. I. T. Brown. 

Public School No. 100, 
Broadway and Fulton St., 
New York, Oct. 5, 1907. 
Mrs. I. T. Brown, 
152 Fulton St., N.Y. 

Dear Madam: 

Miss Smith has referred to me your favor in regard to 
Victor's rating in deportment. I think you are under 
some misapprehension as to the status of our report 
cards. The card shows a pupil's standing at the close 
of the month, and is copied from the official record. 
That record represents work actually done by the pupil 
and not what we might wish he had done. I send you 
a duplicate of the card; will you kindly sign the same 
and return it to the school? If at any time you desire 
further information as to Victor's record than is indicated 



48 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

by the report card, I should be glad to have you call here 
for a personal conference. Respectfully yours, 

Henry Jones, 

Principal. 

(2) New York, Sept 30/07. 

Public School No. 100 

Mr. Henry Jones 
Dear Sir 

I think that my Dauther Martha studies her home work 
as hard as any pupil in the school room, and I do not 
see why these notes are sent to my home Hopeing I will 
hear no more complants about her hearafter 

I Remain verry Respectfully 
R Haas 

Public School No. 100, 
Broadway and Fulton St., 

Mr. R. Haas, New York > 0ct - *> IQ °7- 

69 Division Ave., N.Y. 
Dear Sir : 

Your favor of Sept. 30th is at hand. It is evident that 
you are much interested in the welfare of your daughter. 
We are too, and communications in regard to her progress 
are sent you in order to further her advancement. I am 
sure that you will see it in this light. 

Respectfully Yours, 
Henry Jones, 
Principal. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUBLIC 49 

(3) Oct 17th 1907 

Miss Green 
Dear Madam 

If this Grammar is not satisfactory what my daughter 

Elenora has written, I will have to bring this matter to a 

higher authority, 

Resp' yours 

Wm White 

Public School No. 100, 

Broadway and Fulton St., 

New York, Oct. 18, 1907. 
Mr. Wm. White, 

235 Broadway, N.Y. 
Dear Sir : 

Miss Green has referred to me your favor of the 17th. 

I do not understand your attitude. You certainly desire 

that Elenora may profit from her school work, and I 

believe that you wish to cooperate with us. Miss Green 

has your daughter's interests at heart. Shall we not 

leave it to her to decide what Elenora should or should 

not do ? 

Respectfully yours, 

Henry Jones, 

Principal. 

It is not presumed that the replies here given are the 
best that could be made, but they are submitted as illus- 
trative of the principle that dignified and courteous an- 
swers may be written even to provoking letters. 



50 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

The principal's correspondence should be written 
in complete form, as to heading, superscription, 
subscription, etc. If typewritten, so much the 
better, because carbon copies can thus be obtained, 
one for riling and one to be given to the teacher. 
It is but fair to the teacher that she should know 
what disposition has been made of a case that 
concerns her ; moreover, the policy of the principal 
is thus best brought to the teacher's attention. 
The typewritten letter also strengthens the parent's 
impression that straightforward business attention 
has been accorded him. The parent who in 
anger has picked up the sheet of paper nearest 
at hand and hastily scribbled a note " calling 
down" the teacher, is sure to be impressed by 
a reply from the principal that is serious, official, 
authoritative, neatly and carefully arranged, and 
couched in polite and respectful language; thus 
is the parent educated, and thus does the pupil 
benefit through the higher ideal established in the 
home. 

But unreasonableness comes to the school not 
alone in written form but frequently as a visit 
from the parent. Here, again, it must be the 
principal who receives the parent and adjusts his 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUBLIC 51 

complaint. 1 The same respectful dignity which 
he puts into a written reply he will put into his 
personal interview. He must impress upon the 
parent that he is desirous of securing right and 
justice, that he is ready to set matters straight, 
but that he is firm in his intention to keep the 
argument to facts and to the point at issue. He 
will decide whether the best interests of the case 
demand that the parent and the teacher shall 
meet. Usually it is better that they should. All 
interviews of a controversial nature between parent 
and teacher should be held in the office of the 
principal. No parent should be permitted to in- 
terview a teacher at her class room, and notice to 
this effect should be conspicuously posted in the 
hallways, and teachers trained to refuse to enter 
upon such an interview. 

Many parents, innocently enough, go directly to the 
class room to give their message to the teacher. The mes- 
sage may be merely that Jane cannot come to-day because 
she has a toothache. In this case the risk is that, once 
inside the room, the fond mother and sympathetic teacher 

1 Mandatory in certain cities, e.g. Louisville: "Visitors to any 
school shall be admitted through the office of the principal only, and 
none shall be permitted to enter the class rooms except by consent 
of the principal." — Rule 7, Sec. 2. 



52 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

will be led into an animated conversation relative to Jane's 
career, the last time Will had the measles or Tom the 
mumps, and how it is that Jane inherits her temper from 
her father and her studiousness from her mother, — all sub- 
jects of legitimate exposition, but not when fifty pupils are 
losing valuable time. In other cases, however, the tone 
of the parent is anything but mild, and there is danger 
of a stormy scene being enacted in the presence of pupils, 
despite the teacher's most skillful handling of the situation. 
So, in every case, the teacher should politely but firmly 
direct the parent to the principal's office immediately upon 
his appearance at the class-room door. 

This gives the principal the opportunity of dis- 
posing of a great many cases without reference to 
the teacher and without taking her time from the 
class. Whether, during an interview between teacher 
and parent, the principal shall follow the conversa- 
tion or even remain in the office, is a matter of judg- 
ment as to the individual case. If it is an amicable 
understanding between an intelligent parent and an 
experienced teacher, the principal may safely ignore 
its detail ; if a storm seems imminent, the principal 
will do well to be on hand to pour the oil upon the 
troubled waters. 

In spite of the utmost endeavor on the part of 
the principal and teachers to present fairly the side 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUBLIC 53 

of the school, occasionally an unreasonable parent 
remains unconvinced. His departure is made with 
the time-honored threat to "go higher" or to " report 
you to the Board of Education" or "to the Superin- 
tendent." The principal may wisely indicate that 
he recognizes the parent's right of appeal, that he 
would welcome the decision of disputed matters 
by those in higher authority, and that, if necessary, 
he will aid the parent in getting a hearing. Often 
this very attitude, astonishing to the parent, leads 
him to take a different view of the matter and prompts 
him to settle it without going beyond the principal's 
office. 

Although parents constitute a majority of the 
principal's callers, he has many other visitors, some 
who have a legitimate claim upon him and some 
who have not. The former present no problem, 
but to deal with the latter requires constant devo- 
tion to the letter and the spirit of his contract. The 
essence of that contract is that the principal's time 
and energy belong, for value received, to the city 
and to the school; yet it is surprising how many 
people fail to grasp this fact, or, vaguely realizing it, 
imagine that the principal can be induced on their 
behalf to prove false to his trust. In most cities 



54 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

such visitors are made the subject of a paragraph 
of the rules for the management of the schools. 
In some the prohibitory provision is couched in very 
general terms, as in Cleveland: "No teacher will 
permit time to be occupied in or about the school 
building, whether during school hours or not, by 
agents, lecturers, exhibitors, or any other person 
having a commercial end in view, and no adver- 
tisements will be distributed through the schools, 
except on authority of the superintendent." In 
others it is more detailed, as in Louisville: "No 
subscription or contribution for any purpose what- 
ever shall be introduced into any school without 
the special consent of [the board. No person shall 
be permitted to visit the schools except on business 
connected with the schools. No advertisements 
shall be read to the pupils of any school, on the 
premises thereof, or posted on the walls or fences of 
any school building, and no petition of any kind 
shall be circulated for signatures in any school of 
the city; and no agent or other person shall be 
permitted to enter any school premises for the 
purpose of exhibiting, either to teachers or pupils, 
any book or article offered for sale, or taking sub- 
scriptions for same. No list of pupils shall be 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUBLIC 55 

given by principals or teachers to any person except 
on the order of the superintendent." Either with 
or without such rules, too much of a principal's 
time is spent in merely denying the requests of 
persons who thus seek to use the public schools 
for private ends. In many cases the purpose is so 
cleverly veiled that the principal may for the moment 
be deceived. For instance, the courteous actor 
who offers "at no expense whatever" to produce 
scenes from the Shakespearean play studied by the 
pupils in one of the grades. Certainly here is a 
philanthropic soul, a devoted worker in the cause of 
public education, who would thus relieve the tedium 
of the school most pleasantly, and all "at no expense 
whatever." But in another five minutes it develops 
that the "consideration" is that printed programmes 
shall be distributed to the pupils, and behold ! on 
their reverse side — or is it, after all, the obverse 
side — the advertisement of a private school bidding 
for pupils. 

Nice questions arise in some situations as to the 
propriety of complying with requests of visitors. 
For example, a lawyer demands to know the address 
of a certain pupil in order that he may further a 
client's interest in some court action. He may 



56 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

represent that it will be greatly to the advantage of 
the pupil himself if the information be provided. 
The principal will be following a safe and wise pro- 
cedure if he declines to deliver such information 
except upon court order in due form, or upon the 
formal demand of an official superior. 

Visitors also to be considered are those who, 
exercising some political or social influence, seek 
some special privilege which they know could not be 
accorded them on the intrinsic merits of the case. 
Such a one is the gentleman who presents his card 
indicating that he is Chairman of Something or 
Second Assistant Secretary to Somebody, and who 
has just "stepped in to settle that little matter of 
the suspension of my friend's boy." Of course 
the direct and perhaps the best method of disposing 
of the interloper is to refuse positively to treat with 
him on any matters which are without his legitimate 
province; but if the gentleman is jovially inclined, 
as is usually the case, perhaps a sufficiently logical 
procedure, and one which will show him the absurd- 
ity of his position, is to take him at his word, accept 
his guarantee that the boy in question will behave 
in the future, and then to keep him — instead of 
the boy's father, who has surrendered his control 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUBLIC 57 

of his own affairs — posted as to the boy's 
conduct. 

If the principal will ever bear in mind that he is 
in the high service of the pupils of his school, but 
of all his pupils equally, the problems relating to 
the troublesome visitor, like so many others, pretty 
clearly indicate their own solution. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE PRINCIPAL AND THE AUTHORITIES 

"Obedience alone gives the right to command/ 9 
says Emerson. In proportion as the principal 
accords respect, courtesy, and obedience to those 
in positions of official superiority will he command 
the respect, courtesy, and obedience of his official 
subordinates. No principal or teacher is expected 
to surrender his professional opinions for his monthly 
stipend ; the exploitation of those opinions, however, 
is, as we have already noted, not a contractual 
privilege, but a general and extra-contractual duty. 
As a citizen he has a citizen's right to be heard 
in the discussion of general educational policy. 
As a lecturer and a writer he has the right of freedom 
of speech and of press. But as the principal of 
a certain school in a certain school system he owes 
official allegiance to the legally constituted authorities 
of that system, however much their views may differ 
from his own. 

The ultimate source of authority is, of course, the 
" people," but the exercise of this authority is dele- 

58 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE AUTHORITIES 59 

gated through organized government by way of the 
State to the municipality and thence to the school 
board. This last transfer is made by a variety of 
methods in the selection of board members : directly, 
by popular vote, as in Denver, Indianapolis, Min- 
neapolis, Rochester, and Worcester; or indirectly, 
either by appointment by the mayor, as in New York, 
San Francisco, Jersey City, and Albany; or by 
appointment by some other official or elected body, 
as in Philadelphia, Richmond, Norfolk, and Atlanta. 
The school board represents the public estimate of 
the schools and the public purpose in regard to 
them. Its function is chiefly constructive and leg- 
islative. To secure the execution of its legislative 
acts a further transfer of authority is made to ad- 
ministrative officers. "The circumstances of the 
case naturally and quickly separate the duties of 
administration into two great departments: one 
which manages the business affairs, and the other 
which supervises the instruction." * Thus is the 
principal brought into relations, varying in their 
directness, with three classes of authorities: the 
board members, the business executives, and the 
supervisors of instruction. 

1 Report of the Committee of Fifteen, p. 115. 



60 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

i. The direct contractual relation of the principal 
to his school board is usually slight, orders emanating 
therefrom coming to him by way of the executive 
offices. Nevertheless, no principal should be igno- 
rant of the personnel of the board or unacquainted 
with at least a few of its members. Whatever 
relation he may be fortunate enough to sustain with 
individual members, it should at least be mutual in 
its character; in the highest sense he should give 
and take. His "general" duty to the State justifies 
his influencing such members in broad matters of 
educational policy, and that influence will be impor- 
tant and valuable in proportion as his specific admin- 
istration of his school inspires confidence in his 
professional judgment. On the other hand, it 
is equally important that the principal himself 
shall profit from the relation. Board members 
almost invariably are laymen (as distinguished 
from school men), and represent the lay view of 
the schools. 1 It is the business of the principal 
to evaluate the intelligence, integrity, and sincerity 
of each board member whom he knows, and with 
the resulting coefficient as a factor to equate his 

1 Superintendent Chancellor discusses very fully the personnel of 
school boards in "Our Schools," p. 12 et seq. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE AUTHORITIES 61 

own views and those of the " spokesman of the 
people." His own opinions are usually much in 
need of just such tempering as comes by blending 
them with the convictions of common-sensed, prac- 
tical, everyday men of affairs, and more than one 
such man is to be found in every board of educa- 
tion. When based on mutual respect, the friend- 
ship of the board member and the school man 
must inevitably result favorably to society and 
to the particular schools in which both are inter- 
ested. 

2. Complete separation of the duties of adminis- 
tration into two departments concerning respectively 
the general and the professional business, together 
with concentration of authority and responsibility 
in a single head for each department, has been 
effected in but a few cities. Indianapolis, in addi- 
tion to a Superintendent of Instruction, provides a 
Business Director who " shall be the executive 
officer of the board"; Cleveland has its Director 
of Schools; and Boston, its Business Agent. In 
most cities, however, the business side of the work 
brings the principal into contact with the heads of 
various bureaus — supplies, buildings, care of build- 



62 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

ings, etc. — and their subordinates. They repre- 
sent the department as concerned with its material 
needs, and frequently magnify that phase of the 
work. Rather, it seems that they occasionally 
suffer from a form of mental lippitude which makes 
the motto " The schools exist for the pupils " read 
"The pupils exist for the schools." It is but 
natural that people dealing with supplies instead of 
with pupils should come to feel that pupils should 
adapt themselves to the supplies; and that the 
building bureau should expect the pupils to grow 
to fit the buildings ; just as other elements of the 
"system" sometimes err by creating the impression 
that the schools exist for the janitors, or for the 
teachers, or for the principals, or for the superin- 
tendents. Where, in the material departments, there 
is this tendency to " put the cart before the horse," 
it is the duty of the principal to keep the true inter- 
ests of the pupils before the official eye. Even if 
there be no specific rule to that effect, the principal 
will be following logical procedure if he conserves 
these interests of his pupils through his "instruc- 
tional" superiors. It is better that he should present 
the claims of the school in the matter of equipment 
and supplies, to his superintendent, and through 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE AUTHORITIES 63 

him reach the proper departments, than to deal with 
them directly. 

3. The one official of the school system with 
whom the principal will have the most direct and 
most frequent relations is his professional superin- 
tendent, who, in the language of Superintendent 
Chancellor, "is the representative of the schools, 
their accredited ambassador to the public . . . 
the central officer of the school system." * In the 
large systems this relationship is complicated by 
the existence of associate or assistant superin- 
tendents. 2 Only by a proper balance of influence 
between the superintendent and the principal can 
the best results accrue. Presumably the principal 
has the grasp of local needs 3 and detailed insight 
into the many corners of his school, while the super- 

1 " Our Schools," p. 133. 

2 New York has thirty-four; Philadelphia, fifteen ; Chicago, eight; 
Cleveland and Kansas City, each seven ; Boston, six ; St. Louis, five ; 
San Francisco, four. 

3 "There is no more important office in our whole school organiza- 
tion than that of the principal. Our whole system in its daily work- 
ing is based on the idea that the principal is the one in whom the 
highest local authority is vested. Great authority is connected with 
duties correspondingly great." — Superintendent F. Louis Soldan, 
Proceedings, National Educational Association, 1899, p. 302. 



64 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

intendent has a clearer view of the broad needs of 
the system, and an intelligent oversight of the many 
schools which, coordinated one with another, make up 
that system. Both of these two view points and these 
two forms of supervision contribute proportionately 
to the welfare of the pupils, and both are essential. 
The relation between superintendent and principal 
of necessity implies courteous consideration on 
both sides. The stronger the superintendent the 
larger the problems with which he concerns himself, 
and in their solution he is entitled to the earnest 
cooperation of all his subordinates. As the princi- 
pals come nearer to his problems than do the class 
teachers, it is from them that he may expect the 
most sympathetic assistance and loyalty. The prin- 
cipal owes this allegiance to his superintendent, 
and will consistently render it in full. 

The premise is, however, that the superintendent 
is one who, by nature and training, so regards his 
office that supervision on any petty basis is impossi- 
ble with him. His very largeness' of attitude and 
action may lead him into minor errors of form and 
judgment, but his mental breadth will make these 
thoroughly forgivable, and in no way impair the 
devotion and loyalty of his subordinates. But if the 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE AUTHORITIES 65 

superintendent is one who constantly violates the 
canons of supervision, then the position of the prin- 
cipal is indeed difficult, for loyalty can be founded 
only upon respect for official ability and personal 
character. In other words, there are two sides to 
the subject of loyalty ; if a superintendent is disloyal 
to his principals, he can scarcely complain if he 
forfeits their loyalty to him. 

It would be more convenient in this discussion 
to assume that no superintendent ever strains the 
allegiance of his principals; but the facts do not 
support this assumption, and, as we are considering 
" practical" school administration, we cannot escape 
the subject. Exceptional in its occurrence as the 
situation fortunately is, when it arises, the principal 
confronts a puzzling but vital problem, and it is 
from the standpoint of his office that we must review 
the conditions. There are three chief principles of 
good supervision which a careless superintendent 
is most likely progressively to violate. 

1. The superintendent may exercise unnecessa- 
rily detailed supervision. This usually implies that 
supervision of large problems is beyond his ability. 
If he is incapable of handling such matters as secur- 
ing better school accommodations, raising the quali- 



66 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

fications of teachers, attracting public opinion to 
the support of the schools, solving some of the per- 
plexing modern educational problems, then must 
he fill in his time showing principals and teachers 
where to place the decimal point in a multiplication 
example. "The superintendent should have a large 
supervision over methods and over teaching, but 
he should be generous and liberal enough to leave 
all principals great freedom in working out their 
own problems. It seems to me he ought never to 
impose a rule of method upon his schools." 1 "If 
a principal is worthy of his position, he is competent 
to maintain the efficiency of his school; and while 
held rigidly responsible for results, he should be 
granted all proper freedom of action. It is a great 
injustice to exact certain results and yet to withhold 
means of attaining them." 2 "The most current 
conception of an efficient supervisor or superin- 
tendent is one who claims freedom for himself and 
grants it to others." 3 

2. The superintendent may fail to respect the 

1 Earl Barnes, Report of Committee of Fifteen, p. 202. 

2 William H. Payne, "Chapters on School Supervision," New 
York, 1875, p. 30. 

3 Samuel T. Dutton, "School Management," New York, 1903, 
P- J 3- 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE AUTHORITIES 67 

administrative headship of the principal. A uni- 
versity president of large experience tells us that 
". . .in dealing with the principal the superin- 
tendent should make his power just as little felt as 
possible. The consciousness of the principal as 
responsible head of the school should not be dis- 
turbed. On the other hand, the supreme power 
of the superintendent need not be abandoned." 1 
Translated into even more practical terms, this 
means that "the superintendent should supervise 
the principals, and the principals should supervise 
their own schools. " 2 Very clearly is the principle 
stated by the Boston School Committee in its annual 
report for 1906 (p. 20): "The principals as the 
responsible administrative heads of their respective 
schools or districts are charged with the organization 
thereof, and the supervision and direction of their 
subordinates and pupils, and the general maintenance 
of order and discipline. Thus, in the administration 
of the school system, the teachers are responsible 
to the principals, the principals to the assistant 
superintendents, the assistant superintendents to 
the superintendent, and finally, the superintendent 

1 J. G. Schurman, Report of Committee of Fifteen, p. 222. 

2 Colonel F. W. Parker, Report of Committee of Fifteen, p. 219. 



68 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

to the board ; and this principle of direct account- 
ability on the part of subordinates to superiors exists 
throughout the entire code." In the practical 
application of this principle, the ultimate authority 
of the superintendent is never called into question; 
it is merely a matter of administrative method. It 
should be strictly adhered to by a superintendent, 
and strict adherence expected by the principal, not 
because of any personal feeling as to the importance 
of the principal's office, but solely because it is a 
valid principle, compliance with which conserves 
the best interests of the pupils. 

It is hardly necessary to defend the principle or even to 
illustrate it. Pupils should have consistent treatment from 
teachers ; anything else is wasteful. It follows that teach- 
ers should receive orders only that are definite, consistent, 
and in accord with all correlated details. It is more prob- 
able that they will be such if they come through the prin- 
cipal than if the superintendent deals directly with the 
teachers. 

3. The superintendent may render ex parte 
judgments against the principal. No thoroughly 
competent executive can please every one in the 
administration of his omce. As a principal deals 
directly or indirectly with hundreds or thousands 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE AUTHORITIES bg 

of people, frequent complaints are sure to be made 
of his acts. But there is a vast difference between 
a complaint and a conviction. A superintendent 
cannot justly condemn a principal merely because 
complaints are made of him; it is his duty to con- 
demn him if investigated complaints convict the 
principal of wrongdoing. If a superintendent con- 
siders a complaint at all, he should do so seriously, 
and investigate it impartially. For instance, a 
teacher should always have the right of appeal from 
the decisions of the principal; but this does not 
mean that the superintendent will gossip with a 
teacher about her principal, sympathize with her 
in her criticism of him, or give an offhand verdict 
against him. The principal, in this as in all cases, 
should be given due notice of the complaint and 
an opportunity to be heard. Only after all the evi- 
dence is in should the superintendent render any 
decision. 

It is in one or more of these three directions that 
a superintendent is most liable to violate the rules 
of supervision. The occasional slip, unimportant 
and clearly unintentional, the principal is under no 
obligation to recognize or resent; but where the 
violations are made continually, the principal, for 



70 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

the sake of his school, cannot afford to overlook 
them. 1 His duty in that case is to present his view 
of the matter first of all to the superintendent in 
question. If it concerns unnecessarily detailed super- 
vision, he will present the academic argument against 
it, reenforced by specific instances within his own 
school wherein such supervision has impaired the 
work of the school, and consequently the progress 
of the pupils. If it concerns failure to recognize 
the administrative headship of the principal, he 
will show how such procedure is wasteful, and will 
cite, by analogy, the discipline in well-ordered 
organizations other than school systems, and his 
own attitude toward his teachers (see p. 83)- ^ ^ 
concerns the expression of ex parte judgments, he 
will appeal for justice and fair play on broad lines 
of the propriety of judicial procedure in the investi- 
gation of complaints and of consideration of only 
competent testimony. 

If the principal finds that the superintendent 
persists in ignoring his presentment, it is clearly 

1 1 do not consider the extreme case, unfortunately existent, but 
happily rare, where a superintendent stultifies himself by bringing 
personal animus into his dealings with a principal. Such a con- 
dition, like any other crisis in the life of an individual, simply throws 
him back upon his fundamental resources of personal and private 
philosophy. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE AUTHORITIES 71 

his business to appeal to the next higher authority, 
and, if necessary, by virtue of his " general" duty, 
to public opinion. Above all, he must be courteous, 
dignified, and dispassionate in his procedure; and 
he will be guided by local conditions and by cer- 
tain general considerations, among which are the 
following : — 

(1) His duty to conserve the equilibrium of his 
school will lead him to postpone action toward 
relieving the strain until it approaches the breaking 
point. 

(2) On the other hand, his duty to conserve the 
integrity of his school demands that it shall ulti- 
mately be administered along lines of rational 
policy. 

(3) He will stand upon the ground that "the right 
of appeal is an essential feature of democracy. 
Without it there can be no freedom and equality." 1 

(4) He will sink personal considerations in his 
duty toward his pupils ; the dictates of his conscience 
must overrule his natural and legitimate ambition 
to win favor from his superiors. 

(5) He will profit by the wrong attitude of his 
superior by reexamining himself to see that he, in 

1 Chancellor, op. cit., p. 154. 



72 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

turn, is maintaining the proper attitude toward his 
subordinates. 1 



The principal, charged with carrying out the orders 
of his superior officers, finds two divergent methods 
of interpretation and action open to him: he will 
be either a strict constructionist or a loose con- 
structionist. It would appear from the history of 
the contest between the two ideas, as expressed in 
American politics, that both attitudes are tenable, 
though at variance. The principal should adopt 
a consistent policy along one or the other of these 
lines : if a strict constructionist, he will endeavor to 
obey to the letter every rule and every instruction 
from higher authority; if a loose constructionist, 
he will justify exercising his own judgment on the 
ground of the public interest. Following either, 
he is likely to encounter trouble: in the one case, 
there will come a time when his obedience displeases 
his superior and he is accused of error in judgment 
in spite of his technical righteousness; in the other 
case, he will be told that no exercise of his own 
judgment can condone official disobedience. His 

1 Cf. the principal's attitude toward his own mistakes (p. 32) and 
his attitude toward teachers (p. 83). 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE AUTHORITIES 73 

predicament is somewhat analogous to that of the 
locomotive engineer who is under orders to obey 
a hundred rules and regulations, absolute compli- 
ance with which would prevent his maintaining the 
schedule provided for his train: if he disobeys, 
he courts disaster and the wreck of his train; if 
he obeys, his train is always late and he loses his 
place. 

For instance, the superintendent of one city censured 
principals by circular letter because many of them, com- 
plying with the rules of the school board, dismissed their 
pupils at noon in the midst of a very heavy storm. Part of 
his letter read : " Principals should use proper discretion in 
the interpretation of this (sic) by-law. The noon inter- 
mission could have been held from 12:30 until 1:30 
p.m., or even from 1 until 2 ; and the afternoon session 
from 1 : 30 until 3 p.m., or from 2 until 3 p.m. The chil- 
dren should not have been sent into the street during a 
violent rain storm. " There was no authority given to the 
principal by any by-law of the school board to change the 
session periods ; and, moreover, the board has never, in 
the years subsequent to the incident recited, amended its 
by-laws to give this authority to the principals. But in 
the opinion of the superintendent the principals should 
have exercised discretion. On the other hand, if the same 
principals were to exercise equal discretion in the interpre- 
tation of certain other by-laws which are printed in the 



74 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

manual in type of the same size as the rule as to sessions, 
the superintendent would promptly censure them for dis- 
obedience. 

The principal cannot justify disobedience of 
instructions because his own opinion or his inter- 
pretation of public opinion does not indorse those 
instructions, responsibility for which is clearly and 
solely upon the person or persons issuing them. He 
should permit that burden to rest upon the proper 
shoulders, — which are usually quite capable of 
bearing it, — and be content to shoulder his own 
responsibilities, which are by no means few or 
unimportant. 

Probably the safest course of action for the prin- 
cipal is to reduce the problem to its lowest terms, 
acting as a strict constructionist, except under the 
stress of an emergency. That is, he will give 
absolute obedience to all instructions except where, 
in an emergency unforeseen by the framer of the 
instruction, such obedience would endanger the 
physical welfare of the pupils. This reduces the 
liberty of action by the principal to the exercise of 
his own judgment as to the definition of " emer- 
gency," and leaves him the responsibility only of 
justifying his definition. 



CHAPTER V 

THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 

"The general success of a school depends very 
largely on the quality of its teaching force," says 
Payne. 1 Most important is it that the principal 
shall gather around him strong teachers. This 
he can do only by being strong himself. He must 
establish for himself such a reputation for ability, 
and especially for just and kindly treatment, that 
teachers will, when they have an option, choose to 
work in the school over which he presides. Under 
whatever system of appointment he may be work- 
ing, whenever added effort will secure a better 
teacher, the principal must be ready to make that 
effort. 

The personal equation of course enters ; each principal 
will have his own particular teacher ideal. Teacher A 
may be excellent in the estimate of principal X, but not in 
that of principal Y. Teacher B may be as good a teacher, 
and yet not have the qualifications most esteemed by prin- 

1 Op. cit.y p. 36. 
75 



7 6 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

cipal X, though she is entirely satisfactory to principal Y. 
It is clear that X should get A into his school, and Y 
should get B; yet too frequently the reverse happens, 
either on account of the system of appointment, or because 
of the neglect or indifference of the principals concerned. 

It is evident that in making a choice, even under 
the best of conditions, the principal seldom finds 
the ideal teacher; yet he will, more or less con- 
sciously, have such an ideal in mind, against which 
he will measure all candidates. 

The subject of the ideal teacher has been a favorite 
theme with the pedagogues and the essayists. An ex- 
tended chapter could not do justice to their mosaic manipu- 
lations of nouns and adjectives, but we may content our- 
selves with a very brief and partial survey. Baldwin * 
says the teacher must be gifted, cultured, devoted, pro- 
gressive, and professionally trained. White 2 says she 
must have the intangible qualifications of personal mag- 
netism and natural aptitude, and the tangible qualifications 
of good scholarship, skill in teaching and managing, heart 
power, will power, good eyes and ears, common sense, and 
moral character. Dutton 3 considers most important : 
personality, good health, duties out of school, intellectual 

Joseph Baldwin, "School Management and School Methods," 
New York, 1900, p. 30. 

2 Emerson E. White, "School Management," New York, 1893, 
p. 19. 3 Op. cit. } p. 16. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 77 

fitness, moral qualities, sincerity, honesty, temperament, 
and strength as a social force. Chancellor 1 names as the 
important factors: good physique, buoyancy of spirit, 
cheerfulness, culture. Superintendent Edson includes in 
his ideal : character, skill, wisdom, appearance, health, 
and strength. Superintendent Lyon notes as most im- 
portant, in ascending scale: scholarship, health, judg- 
ment, tact, character. 2 

The teacher is the product of the two factors, 
native ability and training. Her natural equip- 
ment consists of her physique, and that " vague, 
indefinite, spiritual quality" that we call personal- 
ity. Her training gives her formal scholarship, 
general culture, and the more special equipment 
of professional and technical education. But it 
is only the actual test in the class room that can 
prove a teacher's value. The most experienced 
of supervisors, when limited in the forming of his 
opinion to a conference with a teacher, will occa- 
sionally err in his judgment as to her actual worth. 

1 Op. cit., p. 127. 

2 A whimsically philosophical discussion of the Ideal Teacher will 
be found in the Atlantic Monthly for April, 1907, by Professor George 
Herbert Palmer, who says that the teacher must possess: (1) sympa- 
thetic imagination ; (2) accumulated intellectual wealth ; (3) power to 
invigorate life through learning ; and (4) readiness to be forgotten. 



78 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

Having secured the nearest available approach 
to the ideal, the next business of the principal is 
to see that the teacher is assigned to do that work 
for which she is best fitted. If the round pegs are 
in the square holes and the square pegs in the round 
holes, in any organization, it will lack stability and 
effectiveness. In accordance with this theory, the 
principal will study to place each teacher where she 
can give the most to the school, and at the same 
time be content and cheerful through interest in 
her work. As a rule, the inexperienced teacher 
should be given neither the first -year pupils nor those 
of the higher grades ; and if there are all-boys' and 
all-girls' classes in the school, she should be given 
a class of girls. Yet there is an occasional beginner 
who seems immediately fitted for service in a diffi- 
cult class of boys, and in that case the school should 
not be obliged to lose that service from her by reason 
of any rigid rule of assignment. 

It is important for the principal to know his 
teachers. Kipling's subaltern in the " Brushwood 
Boy" is advised: "Get to know your men, young 
un, and they'll follow you anywhere. That's all you 
want — know your men." The success of a school 
will depend in large measure upon the intimacy 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 79 

that is established between the principal and his 
teachers. If the relation is merely the formal busi- 
ness of the teacher rendering so many hours' service 
and the principal certifying that she does not shirk 
her work, the school may be well run, but it will 
surely lack that finer element which we call atmos- 
phere. A cordial interest shown by the principal 
in both the personal and professional welfare of his 
teachers — a personal friendship that knows the 
teacher's ambitions, hopes, and limitations, and 
a professional comradery that implies a sym- 
pathetic understanding of the teachers' daily prob- 
lems — will in due time bring about a maximum of 
effective result with a minimum of nerve strain for 
all concerned. 

The chief duty of the principal toward his teachers 
is to help them serve their pupils ; and in proportion 
as he impresses upon them his ability and willing- 
ness to do this, will he have the loyal support of his 
staff, and, in consequence, a school that will be rec- 
ognized as doing much for its pupils. The formal 
assistance which he will give to teachers will be 
considered at some length later ; let us first note the 
more informal phase of the relation between princi- 
pal and teachers. 



80 THE MANAGEMENT OF A GITY SCHOOL 

The new teacher will need and will welcome 
detailed and specific practical directions for her 
class-room guidance. But as she grows in profes- 
sional skill and strength, the principal will less and 
less restrict her with detailed supervision, and more 
and more urge and encourage her to express herself 
in her work. He will see that as she progresses in 
years of service she makes a proportionate advance 
in personal growth and culture. On one hand he 
will note improvement in her work whenever he 
can, praise rather than censure, and by an example 
of cheerful optimism guide her over the rough places 
of her day's work. On the other hand, he will not 
let her settle into any smug conceit that she has 
" finished" her training and may spend the balance 
of her career running in one well-oiled groove. 
By example and precept the principal will encourage 
his colaborers to self-culture: maintaining an up- 
to-date teachers' library, stirring teachers to develop 
outside interests that shall enlarge their horizon and 
broaden their sympathies, leading them to recognize 
the need of plenty of outdoor exercise, encouraging 
them to make profitable friendships, stimulating 
them to independent study and thinking, and send- 
ing them to visit other schools. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 81 

The visitation of other schools should not be 
neglected nor should it be done perfunctorily. A 
teacher may gain by seeing better work than she 
herself is doing, thereby getting the stimulus to do 
better work herself ; or, if she is an excellent teacher 
herself and is in a temporary despair over her own 
work, she may gain by seeing other teachers who 
are suffering similarly. In either case she should 
visit in the right spirit, knowing what she is going 
out for, getting it if she can, and if not, getting what 
she can. 

The principal will find that his teachers are of 
three kinds, — those who do, those who don't, and 
those who are colorless. He will have to curb the 
first, prod the second, and labor with the third. 

Many a painstaking, successful teacher contracts 
that disease which, for lack of a more expressive 
title, I must call "schoolitis." In her conscientious 
devotion and zeal she is eating, drinking, and 
sleeping "school." She takes home armfuls of 
spelling papers, compositions, and other written 
work, and pores over them into the late evening, 
coming to school the next day after a sleepless 
night. The principal must diagnose such a case 



82 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

promptly, and apply the remedies heroically. The 
teacher must be trained to stay in school after 
session long enough to finish properly the day's 
work and to make an outline preparation for the 
work of the following day. No papers are to be 
taken out of the building, and when the teacher 
locks her desk, she must lock in it all the irritating 
detail of the school day, and walk out into the 
open air with a mind free from anxiety for the 
morrow. She must get a complete change of 
atmosphere during the evening, seeking recreation 
and pleasure; and enjoy a night's wholesome 
sleep. Her value to her class the next day will, in 
consequence, be far in excess of what it would have 
been had she corrected five times as many papers 
at the expense of a serious drain on her vitality. 

On the other hand, the teacher who is willfully 
neglectful must be held to a strict accountability 
for her work and results, and brought as soon as 
possible to the right attitude and a realizing sense 
of her responsibilities and the seriousness of her 
business. Such a teacher, having positive quali- 
ties, is easily driven to putting her energies into the 
right direction, or else she is forced out of the 
profession because the principal can readily prove 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 83 

her inefficient. The same may be said of the 
teacher who shows early in her career that she is 
hopelessly incompetent. 

But the teacher who is negative rather than 
positively good or bad, who is passive, indifferent, 
and colorless, is a serious problem. She cannot 
be classed as incompetent, and dismissed on this 
charge; nor can she be regarded as a positive 
and profitable force in the school. With such, the 
principal can only struggle as best he may, charging 
her up to " profit and loss" on the school ledger, 
and reconciling himself, if necessary, by considering 
that "the poor ye have always with you." 

By way of approach to the more formal methods 
of assisting teachers, let us consider the official 
attitude of the principal toward them. 

The principal must make it a point at all times 
to respect the authority of the teacher. She must 
be recognized, and must be taught to recognize 
herself, as the administrative head of her class, 
just as the principal is the acknowledged adminis- 
trative head of his school. Indeed, the principal 
will be, if anything, less jealous of his own admin- 
istrative authority than he is solicitous to respect 



84 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

that of the class teacher. The concrete application 
of this principle in the presence of pupils will do 
much, through the creation of an atmosphere, to 
further the general good discipline of the school. 

For instance, in going into a class room to make an 
announcement to the pupils, the principal will interrupt 
the teacher and the work of the class only after saying, 
"Excuse me, Miss Blank; I wish to make an announce- 
ment to the class," or similar expression. When he 
wishes to send a pupil on an errand, he will ask per- 
mission to do so of the teacher of the class, and leave it to 
her to decide which pupil is to be selected. Or, if the 
principal wishes to know if a certain boy is in a certain 
class, he will not bolt into the room with the inquiry 
addressed to the class, but will quietly ask Miss Blank if 
the boy is there ; if so, and he wishes to speak to him, he 
will ask Miss Blank to call him to the front. 

Care about such seemingly unimportant matters 
may seem like unnecessary nicety, but it is care 
which yields much in results. The principal sacri- 
fices none of his authority. The teacher knows 
well enough that the principal has the " right" to 
do these things in the more direct and abrupt way. 
She must already have gained a respect for him 
through his demonstrated ability; and these little 
courtesies in no way diminish that respect. The 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 85 

large man does not need to advertise his authority; 
it is only the small man who is constantly asserting 
that he is to be respected. But the most practical 
result of all is that the pupils are keen to see that 
the teacher has an authority which even the princi- 
pal respects, and their own respect for that authority 
is thus enlarged. The consistent practice of such 
formal courtesy is one way by which the principal 
gives notice to the pupils, and particularly to the 
unruly inclined pupils, that he stands directly behind 
the teacher ready to support her in maintaining the 
discipline of her class. 

Not only will the principal respect the teacher's 
authority when in the presence of pupils, but he 
will further recognize it and impress it upon her 
in all his official dealings with her. At conferences 
he will defer to her judgment and carefully weigh 
her contributions. He will encourage her to express 
herself in her class-room methods and defend her 
own ideas, even when they are at variance with his. 
Says Payne, 1 " Perpetual interference in minor mat- 
ters, which will usually work their own cure, is a 
capital fault in school management." 

Nevertheless, there is much that the principal 
1 Op. cit., p. 71. 



86 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

can do in the planning of teachers' work, in the 
interest of both teachers and pupils. The carrying 
out of plans involves instructing teachers, and this 
subject merits consideration. 

All instructions to teachers should be definite and 
to the point. The fewer they are, the more likely are 
they to be respected. They should not be hastily 
issued, but should be the result of careful delib- 
eration, and should be reasonable and justifiable. 
In any system the teacher should at all times have 
the right of appeal from the decisions of the principal. 
Good teachers will never appeal from reasonable 
orders. If an order seems in any way mysterious, 
it is wise to explain the reason for issuing it whenever 
that is practicable. The right of principals to issue 
orders is not questioned, but teachers appreciate 
the principal's taking them into his confidence, and 
respond more heartily to directions, the justification 
for which they thoroughly understand. Teachers 
should be trained to distinguish between orders and 
suggestions, and the principal's statements should be 
so phrased as to show clearly which they are. 

For example, the principal may direct that teachers 
report for certain duty at a certain time. If they willfully 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 87 

fail to comply with this direction, they are guilty of in- 
subordination and should be treated accordingly. He 
may suggest that teaching a certain geography lesson with 
a globe is better than teaching it with a map. If any 
teacher fails to follow this suggestion, she is in no sense 
insubordinate, and, provided her preference for the other 
method is sincere, should in no way be criticised for 
disregarding the principal's suggestion. If the principal 
should conclude that there are sufficient reasons why his 
method ought to be followed, then he may prescribe that 
method and direct that it be used, which immediately 
changes the character of the action of any teacher who 
might then insist on using the contrary method. 

Instructions may be written or oral. Where they 
need little explanation, or where they are of perma- 
nent value or even of temporary importance, they 
should be written, and their receipt acknowledged 
by each teacher, who should sign her name or 
initials to the sheet. 1 The value of such receipt is 
that the principal can readily check up the circula- 
tion of his instruction sheet, and also can convince 

1 Such sheets should never be circulated by means of a pupil- 
monitor except in the case of notices which are to be read by the 
teachers to their pupils. It is well to caution the teachers generally 
as follows: "Do not permit pupils to see notices to teachers. Do 
not take them into your confidence as to any of the limitations put 
upon school officers and teachers." 



8S THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

the forgetful teacher who has forgotten to comply 
with a particular instruction that the fault is her 
own. The circular instructions should be kept for 
some time, not alone for reference and retrospective 
study by the principal, but also to provide against 
the rare but troublesome case of the willfully in- 
subordinate teacher against whom he may some 
time be forced to prefer charges, in which event the 
acknowledged receipt of instructions becomes valu- 
able documentary evidence. 

Oral instructions are given to individual teachers 
or to various groups. The teachers' meeting should 
be for either instruction or conference, and it is 
well to make a careful distinction. When it is 
for the giving of instructions only, the teachers 
should clearly so understand it. The principal 
should be careful in giving such instructions not 
to wander, and yet to take time enough to clear up 
any difficulties. 

As for the conference, certain principles are 
valid : — 

i. Do not have too many such meetings. An 
occasional, enthusiastic conference is worth more 
than five formal meetings coming at stated and 
frequent intervals. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 89 

The number of meetings is limited by rule in some 
cities, e.g. Jersey City: "He (the principal) may require 
his assistants to remain after school, not to exceed one 
hour each week, for instruction or conference." — Rules, 
IV. On the other hand, Minneapolis requires that the 
principal " at least once in each week shall hold meetings 
of his assistant teachers for conference upon the work in 
hand." — Rules, Sec. 26. 

2. Encourage teachers to talk. Emphasize the 
thought that a conference is not a monologue, and 
that all are invited and expected to. contribute. 

3. Be patient with the diffident teachers or 
those of slower understanding; get their view point 
and sympathize with their limitations and their 
endeavors. 

4. Do not let the subject get away. While gen- 
eral discussion is to be encouraged, it must be kept 
germane to the subject in hand. 

5. Get something for yourself. It must be ac- 
counted an unsatisfactory meeting if you do not 
bring from it some new idea, some fresh impulse, 
or some happy inspiration, which shall in time duly 
react upon your school. 

As to the comparative value of the different- 
sized groups, it may be said that in the school con- 



go THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

ference the principal will exercise his larger influ- 
ence, establish his standards, set forth his ideals, 
and create his atmosphere; in the grade or group 
conference, he will do his most effective detailed 
work; and in the individual conference, he will 
correct the personal errors, encouraging the faltering 
teacher and inspiring the strong to further successes. 
This leads to that particular form of instruction 
which we call criticism. Criticism of a teacher 
should not be made at all until after the principal 
has carefully thought out the matter; but if his 
decision is that criticism is needed, then he must 
administer it promptly and courageously. It must 
always be given in a judicial, dispassionate attitude ; 
never is the shortcoming of the teacher to be con- 
strued as an offense against the principal. Never 
should the principal make an ex parte judgment; 
he should be sure of his ground before treading on 
it. Never should he criticise, and rarely should 
he instruct, teachers in the presence of their pupils. 
The individual transgressor among the teachers 
should be dealt with individually; she and her 
transgression should not be reached through a 
general criticism applied to all. Oral criticism is 
usually more satisfactory than written. The written 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 91 

note is cold, formal, and often misleading. The con- 
ference gives opportunity for question and answer 
and a better understanding. Verbal expression can 
give a sympathetic meaning to criticism which the 
written word cannot convey. In such a conference 
the principal must be frank and truthful. He must 
make his appeal to the teacher as her official adviser 
and personal friend, and lead her to correct herself 
rather than dogmatically to superimpose his own 
formal instructions. 

The planning of teachers' work may be both on 
the quantitative and on the qualitative sides, though 
in general it may be said that we plan quantity and 
inspire quality. 

04) On the quantitative side, the chief lines of 
planning are : — 

1. Uniform interpretation of the course of study. 

2. Subdivision of the work of the term. 

3. Teachers' records of plans and progress. 

4. Daily time schedules. 

1. Interpretation of the Course of Study 

The principal works through a course of study 
established by higher authority for all the schools 



92 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

in the system. There can be great difference in 
the interpretation of the curriculum by different 
principals within the same system ; and the principal 
should, and usually does, have the authority to in- 
terpret and modify the course to suit the peculiar 
needs of his particular locality. It is the duty of 
the principal to see that teachers emphasize the 
proper topics in the course and do not lose time 
by a disproportionate attention to the relatively 
unimportant items. Teachers, when in doubt as 
to how intensively they should consider a topic 
in any subject, should ask for a ruling, — and they 
should be encouraged to ask, — and his rulings, 
in turn, should, through their consistency, bring 
about a uniform and well-balanced treatment of all 
subjects throughout the various grades of the school. 

2. Subdivision of the Term's Work 

The work of the term should be subdivided, 
perhaps into month's work, but probably not to 
any finer subdivision, in order: (i) that the teacher 
shall not mismanage her term's work by an incor- 
rect estimate of the time it takes to cover various 
topics. Without such a plan the teacher is apt to 
give too detailed attention through the early weeks 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 93 

of the term, and discover too late that the required 
work left undone cannot possibly be completed in 
the remaining days ; (2) that the pupils in different 
classes of the same grade may work along approxi- 
mately the same lines, taking up topics in about the 
same order, thus making easy the transfer of pupils 
from class to class within the grade during the term. 

Such subdivision of work should be planned by 
the principal and teachers of the grade working 
together. The teachers should be brought into it, 
first because they are intimately acquainted with 
the detail work and are usually able to counsel 
wisely ; and secondly, because they will more readily 
and successfully carry out a plan which they have 
helped to make. 

The resulting plan should be clear and definite, 
and yet not too detailed. Furthermore, it should 
be considered, as should all plans of the school, 
as tentative and subject to immediate change when- 
ever such change is clearly advisable. Upon the 
beginning of each term the principal might well 
have a series of grade conferences in which the 
subdivision plans in each grade would be considered 
and amended to such an extent and in such manner 
as the experience of the term past seemed to warrant. 



94 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

3. Plan and Progress Records 

Teachers may be required to keep plan and 
progress books, the former by way of prophecy of 
the coming day's work, the latter to record fulfill- 
ment. In the plan book are to be set forth "in 
logical order from day to day the various facts and 
principles to be taught under each subject, with 
sufficient detail to illustrate clearly what is meant." 
The progress book, on the other hand, shows what 
has actually been accomplished. The two records 
may be kept separately or together. The chief 
points of value of such plan and progress books 
are: (1) for the pupil, a more profitable recitation, 
more forceful and vigorous teaching, and more 
carefully selected and prepared work; (2) for the 
teacher, freedom from anxiety as to what to do next, 
and the benefits that always accrue to careful prepa- 
ration ; (3) for the substitute, easy taking up of the 
precise work of the day; (4) for the principal, 
superintendent, or other visitor, a bird's-eye view 
of the teacher's and pupils' work. 

It is easy, however, to overdo this, as all other 
plans, and a few cautions must be added as an offset 
to the above summary of advantages. If the plan 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 95 

and progress books arc in any degree elaborate in 
form and substance, (1) there is a tendency to regard 
the books as an end in themselves instead of a means 
to the true ends of education; (2) there is indiffer- 
ence to the class spirit and the finer forms of class 
work; (3) emphasis is placed on the pouring-in 
work of the teacher at the expense of the proper 
response on the part of the pupils; (4) there is a 
temptation for the principal to substitute an inspec- 
tion of these books for a more thorough investiga- 
tion of the actual work of the teacher and class. 

To secure the happy mean between no plan books 
and books which are too elaborate is an important 
duty of the principal. It is reasonable to require 
different degrees of preparation by different teachers, 
demanding from the new teacher a more detailed 
plan and a more exact record of progress than from 
the older and more experienced teachers. 

For the excellent teacher the following form of plan 
book will prove sufficient. An ordinary memorandum 
book, about 4" by 6", with horizontal ruling, indexed as 
shown, will give a line or two for each subject and a double 
page for each day. 

Throughout the day, as the work in any subject is com- 
pleted, a concise note is made of what it is planned to take 



9 6 



THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 



up the next day. By the close of the day the book is thus 
already written up for the following day. Entries in pencil 
are usually sufficient. The same book serves all neces- 




sary purposes as a progress book, because the difference 
between the work planned for any one day and for the 
day following will indicate the work accomplished on the 
first of the two days. 



4. Daily Time Schedule 

Such a programme or time schedule is needed 
as a matter of system for the teacher, in order that 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 97 

she may keep her balance and properly proportion 
the minutes of the school day to the separate features 
of the work in hand. The programmes should be 
the product of the work of both the principal and 
the teachers; he should prescribe the general prin- 
ciples, and they should work out the detail, subject 
to his final review and approval. 

The leading principles to be followed in the con- 
struction of the time schedule are : — 

1. It must be mathematically correct. This is 
based upon the assumption that the school time 
of the week or month is allotted to the different 
subjects in the curriculum by schedule issued by 
the school board or the superintendent. Hence, 
the amount of time for each subject on the daily 
schedule must check up in agreement with the 
authorized totals. 

2. If the authorized schedule includes an allot- 
ment of unassigned time, this time must be wisely 
assigned, in accordance with the local needs, in the 
daily schedule. 

3. The schedules for the various classes must 
be so arranged as to avoid conflict of recesses, 
assemblies, and other group or general exercises. 

4. The number of subjects daily and the length 



98 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

of time given to each must be regulated and varied 
according to the grade of the class. Pupils in lower 
grades need frequent change of occupation, with 
periods not too long to be exhausting. Higher 
grade pupils take longer periods, — up to forty or 
fifty minutes, — which will reduce the number of 
subjects to be taken daily. 

5. There should be a proper distribution of 
subjects; an alternation, first, of those subjects 
which involve different phases of effort on the part 
of the pupil, and secondly, of those subjects which 
are taxing * and those which are relaxing. Over- 
taxing the brain produces fatigue, which "is defined 
as the decrease in the capacity for work; fatigue 
in this sense may or may not have definite relations 
to the peculiar sensation known as the ' feeling of 
fatigue.'" 2 

Fatigue is a physical matter, and is not to be confounded 
with weariness, which is psychological. "We may note as 
evidence of normal fatigue a definite weakening of attention 

1 "In the intermediate grades, at least, all drill lessons — including 
writing, spelling, basal reading, drill arithmetic, etc. — should be 
given very favorable periods." — William Chandler Bagley, 
"The Educative Process," New York, 1907, p. 328. 

2 E. W. Scripture, "The New Psychology," New York, 1905, 
p. 247. >' •••• 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 99 

and perception, an unreadiness and inaccuracy of judg- 
ment, diminished power of insight and initiation, and 
especially a loss of self-control. Along with these there 
is discoverable a lessened work rate, as well as a length- 
ened reaction-time to all kinds of stimuli; while usually 
there are more or less painful feelings accompanying all 
efforts whatsoever." 1 

"The clearness of the ideas aroused under our 
instruction is very dependent upon the child's 
freedom from fatigue." 2 The amount of vitality 
at the disposal of each individual person is subject 
to wide variation, according to age, 3 season, and 
time of day. It would appear that this last variation 
— particularly to be considered in the construction 
of the daily time schedule — takes the form of a 
regular alternation of maxima and minima, and 
that the two periods of maxima are at about 9.30 
to 11.00, both a.m. and p.m., and the two periods 

1 Smith Baker, Educational Review, Vol. XV, 1898, p. 34. 

2 Stuart H. Rowe, "The Physical Nature of the Child," New 
York, 1906, p. 73. 

3 "There seems to be evidence also that there is a falling off in 
the nervous power of the child at about the seventh and eighth years. 
He is more easily fatigued. This is due probably to the fact that 
the increase in the size of the heart muscle does not correspond to 
the rapid increase in height and weight at that age." — Rowe. 
ibid., p. 129. t»OFC 



ioo THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

of minima at about 3.00 to 4.00, both morning 
and afternoon. 1 

6. Liberal interpretation should be allowed to 
experienced teachers. The new teacher will need 
the detailed supervision that is implied in being 
required to adhere closely to an exact allotment 
of time and lessons. 

Such a teacher will have a schedule of the usual form, 
in which is indicated, for each day of the week, the exact 
order of all exercises and the time to be devoted to each. 



9 
10 

11 
12 

1 

2 
3 


Monday 


Tuesday 


Wednesday 


Thursday 


Friday 


9 
10 
11 
12 

1 
2 
3 
































NOON INTERMISSION 























1 See Henry Herbert Donaldson, "The Growth of the Brain, " Lon- 
don, 1895, Chapters XV and XVI. Cf. Bagley, op. tit.: "Despite 
the numerous researches concerning the factors of fatigue and their 
operation in the school, this is still a dark chapter in school hygiene," 
p. 340. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 101 

But conditions vary within a class from time to 
time. The physical environment, the weather, inter- 
ruptions by visitors, special exercises, special absence 
of pupils in large number, and many other causes 
contribute to make one Tuesday, for instance, quite 
different from another. The experienced teacher 
may be trusted to consider these variations and 
modify her day's programme accordingly. 



DAILY TIME SCHEDULE 
Class Room.. 

Showing number of minutes to be devoted to each subject daily 



Monday 




Tuesday 




Wednesday 




Thursday 




Friday 




Opening 
Exercises... 




Opening 




Opening 




Opening 




Opening 






Exercises.. 




Exercises.. 




Exercises.. 




Exercises.. 




Physical 




Physical 




Physical 




Physical 




Physical 




Training... 




Training.. 




Training.. 




Training. . 




Training.. 




Recess from.. 




Recess from 




Recess from 




Recess from 




Recess from 




to 




to 




to 




to 




to 




Games from 




Games from 




Games from 




Games from 




Games from 




to 




to 




to 




to 




to 




Shop, Cook- 




Shop, Cook- 




Shop, Cook- 




Shop, Cook- 




Shop, Cook- 




ing, Sew- 




ing, Sew- 




ing, Sew- 




ing, Sew- 




ing, Sew- 




ing, from.. 




ing, from 




ing, from 




ing, from 




ing, from 




to 




to 




to 




to 




to 




Study 




Study 




Study 




Study 

Unassigned.. 




Study 

Unassigned.. 




Unassigned.. 


— 


Unassigned.. 


— 


Unassigned.. 


— 


— 


— 


Total 




Total 




Total 




Total 




Total 





In determining the order in which these subjects shall 
be taken, the teacher will exercise her judgment, remember- 
ing (i) that pupils are influenced by conditions which may 



102 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

differ from day to day; (2) that subjects which are taxing 
and those which are relaxing should be properly alternated ; 
and (3) that the "curve of fatigue" shows a minimum 
amount of energy available between 11 and 12. 

For such a teacher the preceding type of schedule (in 
which the number of minutes for each subject is entered 
by the principal) is well adapted. 1 

(B) On the qualitative side, the chief lines of 
planning are : — 

1. Securing uniformity of methods. 

2. Securing correlation. 

3. Maintaining quality of pupils' work. 

4. Giving model lessons. 

1. Uniform Methods 
The principal will supervise the work of teachers 
in such a way that the work of one grade will dove- 
tail into the work of the next grade. Particularly 
will this be accomplished by prescribing uniform 
methods in those subjects which continue from 
grade to grade. 

For example, there are several methods of teaching 
problems in interest. Three teachers in three successive 

1 Cf. the rigid requirement in Cleveland: "At the opening of each 
year each teacher will make and forward to the superintendent a 
programme of exercises for each day, and a copy of the same will be 
posted on her schoolroom door." 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 103 

grades may each be expert in the handling of a different 
method. Yet it is better that the principal decide upon 
one of those methods and prescribe its use in all three 
grades than that the pupil go from one method to the 
others, no matter how excellent each may be. 

2. Correlation 

Proper correlation must be effected between the 
various subjects in each grade. Particularly is 
this necessary when the principal has administra- 
tive assistants with whom he shares the work of 
the school vertically; and in the departmental sys- 
tem, where the work of each grade is taught by 
several teachers. 

3. Quality of Pupils' Work 

Some system should be established for commend- 
ing the good work of pupils and for condemning 
their poor work. 

For commendation, meritorious work may be sent to 
the principal's office, — at stated times of the day is prob- 
ably best, — there to receive his personal approval, which 
may be expressed by his marking or stamping the paper 
Excellent, Very Good, etc., adding his signature. 

For work which should be commended but which is not 



104 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

tangible enough to be stamped, or which it may not be 
practicable to stamp, a commendation card — 



Name 


FOR COMMENDATION 




Room. 

For. 


Date 


190.—. 




Approved 








Teacher 





may be issued by the teacher and presented by the pupil 
for his signature in approval. It is best to limit the use of 
such cards, perhaps to two per day per class. They may 
be used for a variety of cases : improvement, general, or in 
some particular subject ; effort, specially applied, or gen- 
eral; generally good deportment or lessons; some par- 
ticular exercise of marked excellence, as a good composi- 
tion, neat penmanship, a beautiful drawing, gymnastics, etc. 
Similarly, the teacher should have the opportunity of 
sending unsatisfactory work to the principal. He may 
stamp such papers : — 

This work is below the average 
of the class. 

Kindly examine it and return it to 
the school, with your signature. 

Respectfully, 
(Signed) Principal. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 



105 



or some similar form. It is not necessary that the 
receipted papers be returned to the office unless the 
teacher has doubt as to the genuineness of the parent's 
signature, in which case she will promptly refer it to the 
principal. He will investigate and, if the teacher's suspi- 
cion proves correct, dispose of it as a case of " disci- 
pline." 

There are certain advantages gained by sending 
papers home in this way: 1. It keeps the parents in- 
formed as to the pupil's progress, and the majority of the 
parents appreciate the information. 2. It spurs pupils 
to better work. 3. It helps establish the justice of a 
pupil's non-promotion at the close of the term; a series 
of papers thus signed and returned by the parent pre- 
cludes astonishment that his child failed of promotion. 
4. The principal's stamp on a paper gives its reference 
to the parent added dignity and authority. If the 
parent wishes to reply in writing or by personal call, 
he knows that he must reckon with the principal, and 
naturally goes directly to him. He can best handle 
the interests of all concerned, and can best decide 
whether the teacher should be called to interview the 
parent. 

After a number of unsatisfactory papers of any one 
pupil have been sent home, with no material improvement 
resulting, or when the pupil's poor work is rather a matter 
of oral recitation, the teacher should have the opportunity 
of communicating with the parent by some such form as 
the following : — 



106 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

Public School No. ioo, 
Broadway and Fulton Sts., 



New York, __- 190.. 



M. 



Deae .: 

I am sorry that I must remind you that. 
's work in 



is still below the average of the class. 

Will you please to give the matter your attention and 
cooperate with us in securing better results ? 

Respectfully, 

(Teacher). 

This, and similar notes from teachers to parents, 
may, with good effect, be countersigned by the office 
thus : — 

Please sign and re- 
turn to the School. 

(Principal.) 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 107 

If necessary, this might be followed by other forms 

such as, — 

Public School No. 100, 

Broadway and Fulton Sts., 



New York, i9o___ 



Dear.. 



's poor work continues. 

It would be to h best interest if you would call here 

at your earliest convenience. 

Respectfully, 

(Teacher). 

Public School No. 100, 
Broadway and Fulton Sts., 

New York,. _.i9o.__ 



ML. 



Dear. 



's poor work still continues. 

Unless there is decided improvement immediately, h „_. 

will be placed in the next grade below. 
Respectfully, 

(Teacher) 



108 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

4. Model Lessons 

The most direct means of improving the teacher's 
work is the model lesson. The principal may often 
teach in the class room with some other aim in view, 1 
but when he is giving a model lesson he should keep 
in mind : — 

1. The lesson should be given in a constructive 
spirit and in an attitude that is in sympathy with the 
difficulties of the teacher. The aim is to help the 
teacher better her work; there must be nothing 
of the "show off," no display of information or 
exploiting of ideas, but a straightforward demon- 
stration to the teacher, either of general method or 
of the particular point that has baffled her, to help 
her in her actual difficulty. 

2. The pupils should not be permitted to under- 
stand that the purpose of the principal is to teach 
the teacher. They should regard the teacher as 
thoroughly competent, and the principal's lesson 
as a mere incident in the day's proceedings. 

3. The principal should, if possible, not interfere 
with the regular order of lessons, and should take 
no longer time for his model lesson than the teacher 

1 See p. 315. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 109 

is expected to take in covering the same exercise. 
For the principal to drop into the class room, become 
interested in the work in hand, take that work out 
of the hands of the teacher, and display his own 
knowledge on the subject, is not to give a model 
lesson. In any such procedure he is likely to ramble 
away from the point of the lesson, to exceed the 
time scheduled, and to leave the subject in a worse 
condition than if the teacher had finished it in 
accordance with her own prearranged plan. 

4. Teachers should be encouraged to ask for 
model lessons. Then, they should not always be 
given. If the principal, as is often the case, can 
help more by not giving it, then he should refrain. 

For instance, a teacher says: "Last term I had diffi- 
culty with the teaching of this topic. We have reached it 
for this term; will you present the lesson to my class?" 
The principal replies : "Indicate to me carefully the steps 
by which you presented it last term," and then attends to 
her demonstration of her own method. Upon her com- 
pleting it, he says: "At such a point you followed with 
such and such a point. Had you, instead, gone in this 
other direction and taken so-and-so, would it have been 
better?" The teacher grasps the idea, admits that her 
own method appears weak at just that point, and sees the 
better way. The principal then sends her back to her 



no THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

class to give the lesson herself in accordance with this new 
method which she herself has worked out. Such a dis- 
position of the problem is better than for the principal to 
give the lesson himself. However, if the teacher does not 
grasp the point made by the principal, or else does not 
agree that his method is an improvement on her own, he 
should try it in the class himself, with the result either that 
the teacher with faith understands the method, or that the 
teacher with doubts is convinced of its value. If the result 
of the lesson should indicate that the doubting teacher's 
skepticism was justified, the principal must frankly admit 
it, and give the subject further study. 

5. Every model lesson, given as such, should be 
followed by a conference with the teacher. It may 
be pointed out to her that the principal, in giving 
such a lesson, labors under a decided advantage 
in that he brings with him novelty and authority; 
and under a decided disadvantage in that he is 
ignorant of the individual pupils, their respective 
temperaments and abilities; 1 and that these ad- 
vantages and disadvantages practically offset each 
other. The teacher should be asked to criticise 
the lesson just as the principal would criticise a 
similar lesson given by the teacher; and the princi- 

1 The teacher will realize this if she recalls the difference in her 
own efficiency during the first and the later weeks with a new class. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS in 

pal should take up each point of criticism or com- 
ment, and answer or explain it. Only by frank 
discussion can the teacher be led to see the better 
way, and the pupils get the ultimate benefit of 
improved methods by the teacher. 

6. Finally, the principal should keep a careful 
record of such service rendered to teachers, noting 
the teacher's name, class, general condition, subject 
taught, length of lesson, results of conference, etc. 

But, on the whole, we may agree with Payne, 
" Teachers are to be held responsible for the quality 
of their instruction and discipline, and should be 
allowed to follow their own methods so far as is 
consistent with general requirements." 1 If the 
principal will protect the teacher from outside inter- 
ference, — from parents, book agents, and can- 
vassers, and even from himself and other super- 
visors, — and equip her with such automatic aids 
as have been indicated, he may hold her responsible 
for quality and results in her work, and in the vast 
majority of cases he will get them. 

A school system must have some record of the 
quality of the work of the individual members of 

1 Op. cit.j p. 70. 



112 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

its teaching force. This concerns the principal, 
for it is usually upon his judgment, in whole or in 
part, that the official rating of his teachers depends. 
The rating of teachers, then, is a necessary but not 
very pleasant duty of the principal, and he will 
determine these ratings by combining two factors: 
one, the general day-by-day impression which he 
has of each teacher, and the other, special consid- 
eration of her work. 

As to the first of these, there are many oppor- 
tunities for the principal to gain a general estimate 
of a teacher without considering her work in detail. 
The attitude of the teacher toward her work, her 
general scholarship and culture, her personal tidi- 
ness, her attendance and punctuality, her willing- 
ness to cooperate in the work of the school aside 
from the required work of her class, her influence 
on her pupils as shown by their bearing and conduct 
outside the class room, her manner in interviews with 
parents, — all these, and more, are indications to 
the principal of the character of the work of the 
teacher, which he may observe without entering her 
class room. Also, as he goes about from room to 
room on the routine business of the school, the 
principal, with whom alertness has become a second 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 113 

nature, makes general observations which contribute 
toward his estimates of all teachers. 

But the principal will not base his official rating 
upon this one general factor, particularly in the 
case of a teacher whom he regards, on this general 
basis, as unsatisfactory. It is necessary that he 
should at certain intervals — longer in proportion 
as the teacher is the more experienced and has 
repeatedly demonstrated her fitness — make formal 
inspection of the work of the teacher. 

In such an inspection the principal will examine 
the written work of both teacher and pupils. The 
record books kept by the teacher exhibit her ability 
to plan and proportion her work, as well as her 
accuracy and neatness. The pupils' compositions, 
arithmetic papers, drawings, etc., tell a significant 
story to the intelligent inspector. The blackboard 
work of both teacher and pupils shows whether or 
not the teacher is making a pedagogical use of the 
blackboard; and in lower grades especially, the 
teacher's own work should be judged on the basis 
of its being a model before the eyes of the pupils. 

More important than these, however, are the 
teacher and pupils themselves. The class in action 
is the great criterion. Teaching in accordance with 



H4 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

good method, intelligent and skillful questioning 
of pupils, logical and pedagogical development of 
subjects, unforced and effective correlation of the 
various subjects, illumination of lessons with illustra- 
tive material where possible, and finally, the clinch- 
ing of a lesson and sufficient drill upon its main 
features, — all these are elements in teaching ability. 
But with these go certain other features which are 
distinguished rather as elements in disciplinary 
ability, although the wisdom or necessity of mak- 
ing such a distinction is open to argument. These 
include the teacher's poise and self-control, her 
manner before the class, her reaching of the indi- 
vidual pupil in her mass teaching, her power to 
secure a true interest and attention (not the " cuta- 
neous excitation" scored by Gilbert), 1 her use of 
expression and voice as pedagogical means — the 
voice effectively modulated and varied in its tone, 
her executive ability in going from one activity to 
another; in short, her control of her class. The 
mere fact that a class is under control, "in order,'' 
is not sufficient; the character of the control is of 
far greater importance, and the experienced princi- 
pal will discount the control that is only apparently 

1 Op. cit., p. 139. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 115 

and superficially good, and credit the control that 
indicates finesse in the skill of the teacher. 

Throughout every inspection the principal must 
impress the teacher with the thought that he is 
present in a constructive, not a destructive, spirit; 
that he is there to render assistance to the teacher 
in her service to her pupils; that his aim is prima- 
rily not to rate her, but to work with her for her 
betterment and that of the children. Every formal 
inspection should be followed by a conference with 
the teacher, in which the condition of the work 
should be made the subject of frank and sym- 
pathetic discussion. The teacher should be led 
to realize her own shortcomings, if any have been 
discovered, and to convict herself, rather than to 
receive formal instructions to do thus and so. 

These two factors, then, enter into the principal's 
judgment of a teacher. The testing of the pupils, 
another possible element, is considered in a later 
chapter. 

Whenever ratings are made of teachers and for- 
warded to higher authority, justice demands that a 
copy of the ratings should be presented to the 
teachers concerned, whether this is required by the 
rules or not. If the rating is unsatisfactory, it 



Ii6 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

might be well to precede the formal written state- 
ment with an informal conference in which the prin- 
cipal expresses his regret that the teacher's work 
makes necessary such a rating, indicates the lines 
along which improvement should be gained, and 
gives such encouragement as the case may warrant. 

In most systems there is a class of teachers known 
as Special Teachers, those, that is, who have charge 
of so-called special subjects, such as music, drawing, 
sewing, shop work, and so on. They usually occupy 
a position the status of which is somewhere between 
that of a class teacher and a supervisor; they visit 
classes, inspecting their work and advising the 
teachers in regard to it, and giving such model 
lessons as are needed to enable the regular class 
teachers, ordinarily not specially trained in the 
subject, to teach it with some degree of skill. 

The duties of the principal toward these special 
teachers are chiefly (i) to arrange for cheerful and 
effective cooperation between them and the class 
teachers; (2) to curb the specialist in her natural 
tendency to overdo her own specialty; and (3) to 
see that the time schedules are respected as regards 
the special subjects. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 117 

Most special teachers are artists of one sort or 
another, and consequently have the artist's tempera- 
mental distaste for mathematical limitations and 
systematic observance of schedules. The principal 
will make certain that all the special subjects are 
given their full time and that the time allotted to 
them is effectively devoted to the subjects; but he 
must see, too, that the other subjects of the curricu- 
lum, those which have no special staff of enthusiasts 
to exploit them, do not suffer loss of time at their 
hands. 1 

In schools having a very large number of pupils, 
the principal is usually given one or more assistants 
who have no class-room duties. These may be 
clerical assistants or administrative assistants. 

If the principal's assistant is a clerk, licensed to 
perform clerical duties only, and paid on that 
basis, her duties must be clearly understood to 

1 "In these days of subdivision of labor and divided interests we 
are sadly exposed to bullying at the hands of the patrons of special 
'subjects.' It is the business of teachers and of all practical friends 
of education to defend jealously the general and liberal gymnastic 
against the attacks of those who, interested in a particular study or 
impressed by the immediate practical results of a particular pursuit, 
would monopolize with it the greater part of the school time table." 
— P. A. Barnett, op. cit., p. ix. 



1 1 8 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

include nothing of a supervisory character. She 
must not be permitted either deliberately or un- 
consciously to become a pedagogic adviser of the 
teachers. If a principal is neglectful of this, it is 
very easy for the clerk to drift into a position where 
she is directing teachers in their work, and any such 
state of affairs is wrong to the teachers and the 
pupils. 

But if the assistant is licensed as an administra- 
tive assistant and classed as a supervisory expert, 
then she has a very different relation to the principal 
and the teachers. In some cities such an assistant 
has clearly defined duties; in others, her duties 
are by assignment of the principal, subject to 
the approval of his superiors. Where the Rules 
do not provide in detail for the service that is 
to be rendered by the assistant principal, the 
principal himself should make careful assignment 
of such duties and have it clearly understood by 
the assistant and by the teachers what her responsi- 
bilities are. If the principal has entire freedom 
in the delegation of part of his own duties to the 
assistant, he has a choice between two distinct 
methods of assignment: a horizontal or a vertical. 
Under the former, he divides the supervisory work 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE TEACHERS 119 

of the school horizontally, across the school, by 
grades or by floors of the building. Under the 
latter, he divides the work vertically by subjects. 
Or he may combine the two methods. 

For example, a division of work horizontally might give 
his assistant grades I-V and himself grades VI-VIII. 
Or if the school occupied a four-story building, his assist- 
ant might have the lower two floors and he the upper two, 
regardless of the grades that came in such a division. On 
the other hand, a vertical division might be made as fol- 
lows : Principal — Mathematics, History, Nature, Science, 
Drawing, Discipline, throughout the entire school ; Assist- 
ant — English, Geography, Penmanship, Music, Lateness, 
Supplies, throughout. 

Briefly summarized, the arguments in favor of 
Horizontal Assignment are: 1. Assistants of a 
certain temperament like it, possibly thinking it 
easier; and some are not qualified to supervise 
higher grade work. 2. It gives each teacher fewer 
supervisors to please. 3. It leads to good correla- 
tion in each grade. 4. Responsibility seems more 
fixed and definite. 

In favor of Vertical Assignment: 1. It adds 
dignity to the position of assistant, and tends to 
encourage her personal growth. 2. It gives teachers 



120 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

the advantage of a variety of help, and a chance of a 
more equitable rating, assuming that the principal 
rates only after consultation with his assistant. 
3. It gives the principal the benefit of counsel. 
His assistant may be especially well qualified along 
certain lines, and if these are the lines she supervises, 
her value to the principal as a counsellor is en- 
hanced. 4. It understudies the principal so that 
in his absence some one competent temporarily to 
perform his duties becomes the acting head. 5. It 
secures proper development of each subject of the 
curriculum from grade to grade. 6. It aids school 
discipline, in that the pupils are discouraged from 
supposing that there may be one kind of deportment 
when the principal is in the building, and another 
kind when he is not. 7. It gives the principal a 
better opportunity to know all his teachers; par- 
ticularly is he better able to rate them by his own 
direct personal knowledge. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUPILS — THE MATERIAL 
EQUIPMENT 

"The final test of all questions of administration 
is its relation to the welfare of the individual children 
in the schools. " 1 Before considering the responsi- 
bility of the principal for the physical, mental, and 
moral upbuilding of his pupils, attention must be 
given to the material side of the school. By the 
school is meant, of course, the organization of pupils 
and teachers; but in modern practice, the school 
is known only as housed in a special building and 
environed with material aids to instruction and 
learning. Occasionally a principal is concerned 
with his school from the time that plans are first 
made for its building; but in the great majority of 
cases he is assigned to a school which already occu- 
pies a building, for the design and original equip- 
ment of which he is in no way responsible. In 
either case, given the school plant, he is directly 

1 Gilbert, op. tit., p. 254. 
121 



122 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

responsible for its care and maintenance. Hence 
he should know what good equipment is, so that at 
least he may intelligently advocate improvements and 
extensions. In the words of Dr. Rowe, " Where 
we are perforce obliged to teach in conditions not 
ideal, we should be all the more careful to see that 
every favoring condition possible be given the 
children." x 

The material phase also includes certain other top- 
ics, so that this chapter will consider, in order, each 
very briefly: (i) The School Building, (2) Heating 
and Ventilation, (3) Supplies, and (4) Decoration. 

1. The School Building 

The general subject of school buildings and 
schoolrooms has been so fully treated in educational 
literature 2 as to make superfluous any detailed 
presentation of the subject here. One point espe- 
cially must be brought out, however, in any 
current discussion of the subject; namely, that the 

1 Op. cit., p. 12. 

2 See W. H. Burnharn, "The Bibliography of School Hygiene," 
in Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. II, p. 9; particularly Edward R. Shaw, 
"School Hygiene," New York, 1902; and Severance Burrage and 
Henry Turner Bailey, " School Sanitation and Decoration," Boston, 
1899. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUPILS 123 

development of the modern three- or four-story 
building with its scores of rooms has been accom- 
panied by a demand for many other features than 
class rooms. Assembly rooms, gymnasiums, work- 
shops, baths, kindergartens, etc., are coming to be 
regarded as universal necessities rather than the 
luxuries of the exceptional building. 

The ideal assembly room is a room distinctly 
designed for that purpose and reserved for general 
assemblies of pupils. It has an ample number of 
exits, a sufficient supply of light from windows 
properly placed, and wall surfaces which lend them- 
selves to artistic treatment. It is furnished with 
seats arranged so that not more than four or five 
pupils occupy a single bench (individual seats are 
still better), and so that ample aisles are provided. 
It is further equipped with platform, reading desk, 
and piano. 

The gymnasium occupies the space of at least 
two class rooms, and is furnished with the usual 
heavy apparatus, together with racks containing the 
light individual apparatus, such as dumb-bells, 
clubs, wands, hoops, etc. 

The workshops and cooking rooms are usually 
fitted for classes or sections of between sixteen and 



124 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

twenty- eight, and on this basis require a little more 
space than is usually allotted to a regular class room. 

The kindergarten of not more than forty pupils 
requires a room the size of a regular class room, 
and there is no limit to the amount of artistic fur- 
nishing which may be devoted to it. 

Probably the greatest need for improvement is 
in the design and equipment of the regular class 
room. We may agree with Gilbert that the " group 
method" of classification of pupils " offers the best 
plan within the control of the teacher for training 
the individual in society," 1 and whether we commit 
ourselves to one system or another of class-indi- 
vidual instruction, we may recognize the force of 
Bagley's statement that "the need of careful assign- 
ments of seat work for the majority of the class is 
paramount, and for this reason a well-developed 
technique of class instruction, especially with refer- 
ence to the assignment, is obviously of great impor- 
tance." 2 But of coordinate importance is a reforma- 
tion in the equipment of our class rooms. In certain 
cities, kindergarten rooms are furnished in hard 

1 Op. cit., p. 43. 

2 William Chandler Bagley, "Classroom Management," New 
York, 1907, p. 221. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUPILS 125 

wood and plate or leaded glass, with open fire- 
places, engravings, bric-a-brac, and many other 
luxurious appointments, in addition to the tradi- 
tional kindergarten equipment. 1 When the tax- 
payers are ready to expend the same amount of 
money upon the furnishing of the regular class rooms 
as they now spend, in some places, on the kinder- 
gartens, 2 the educational administrators of their 
money will be able to provide a class-individual 
instruction that comes far nearer our ideals than 
anything yet provided. The development of a 
profitable technique of individual instruction will 
be greatly hastened by the development of a material 
equipment for individual and small-group instruc- 
tion. 

The possibilities of such equipment can only be hinted 
at : a room 50 per cent larger than our present average 

1 Superintendent Small, of Providence, cites (p. 75, Report of 
School Committee, 1 905-1 906) a kindergarten room in Pittsburg 
"circular in form, panelled in solid mahogany, with a raised stucco 
frieze as a border and a beautiful painted ceiling, and with an elegant 
green circular Brussels carpet in place of the ordinary painted 
circle." 

2 Superintendent Small (Report, p. 40): "Reduced to an equal 
time basis, a kindergarten pupil costs 2.4 times as much as a gram- 
mar and primary pupil, and our kindergartens are run on a very 
economical basis." 



126 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

class room ; a class register limited to forty pupils ; forty 
adjustable and movable seats and desks ; a place devoted 
to molding boards; a shop for making models, maps, 
charts, etc. ; a corner for a museum, a herbarium, a refer- 
ence library, etc. 

2. Heating and Ventilation 
A prime necessity for the proper conduct of 
school activities is that pupils shall work under 
favorable conditions as to temperature and ventila- 
tion. 

When the temperature of the outside air falls 
below the normal requirement of 68°-7o° F., some 
artificial means of maintaining such a normal con- 
dition inside the school must be resorted to. The 
present practice, in replacing old systems and in 
installing new ones, seems to be to use a steam- 
heating plant. This, of course, is a system of direct 
radiation, the heated coils being placed within the 
room to be heated, and involves the use of radiators, 
with valves to regulate the inflow and outflow of 
steam. In the most modern systems, this regula- 
tion, either as to the entire plant or as to the radiators 
in each room, or both, is automatically secured by 
means of thermostats. 

The thermostat, placed on a wall at a convenient 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUPILS 127 

height, has direct connection by compressed air or 
other means of control with the valve regulating the 
inflow of steam. When the temperature of the air 
falls below normal, contraction of a delicately placed 
disk or arm in the thermostat releases the control, 
and the steam valve is opened, permitting the flow 
of steam into the radiator, thus heating the room. 
Contrariwise, when the temperature rises materially 
above the normal, the expansion of metal in the 
thermostat initiates the control, and the valve is 
closed. If there is no automatic control of this 
sort, the regulation of the valves must be by hand, 
and requires constant attention by teacher or janitor. 

But the heating of the air is only half the re- 
quirement; there must be a constant replacement 
of old air with new, i.e. ventilation. This means 
that (1) there must be a sufficient supply; (2) it 
must be maintained at the normal temperature; 
(3) it must be humid to about 55 per cent of satura- 
tion ; and (4) it must be of proper purity. 

(1) The two methods of maintaining circulation, 
by vacuum and by plenum propulsion, are the 
reverse of each other in their action ; in the former, 
the propeller is in the exit shaft; in the latter, it 
is in the inlet duct ; by the former, the air is drawn 



128 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

or sucked out of the room ; by the latter, it is pushed 
or forced into the room. Heat is the simplest form 
of propulsion ; x but the modern plant secures circu- 
lation by means of a fan, the operation of which, 
at a speed of from 120 to 250 revolutions per minute, 
draws or forces the air through the ducts and into 
and in the class rooms. The speed of the air in its 
circulation about the room must not be too great, 
else a draft is created, endangering the health of the 
pupils. Each pupil should have 30 cubic feet 
per minute of fresh air. For a class of fifty, then, 
1500 cubic feet will be needed. It has been found 
that a speed greater than 400 feet per minute is a 
draft. Hence, to bring 1500 cubic feet per minute 
into a room at a speed of 400 feet, requires an inlet 
— and of course, too, an outlet — of approximately 
4 square feet area. The best position for these 
openings seems to be, for the inlet, about 8 feet 
above the floor, and for the outlet, about 1 foot 
above, with the two openings in the same wall but 
not directly in the same vertical line. 

(2) By passing the air over steam coils before it 
enters the ducts, the normal temperature is secured ; 

*For diagram, see Gilbert B. Morrison, "The Ventilation and 
Warming of School Buildings," New York, 1892, p. 72. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUPILS 129 

(3) by passing it over water pans or through screens 
kept constantly moist, proper humidity is estab- 
lished; and (4) by taking it from out of doors at 
a distance from the surface, and screening it to 
keep out flying papers, leaves, etc., the supply is 
kept fairly pure. 

3. Supplies 

Whether the principal has much or little to do 
with text-books and other materials used by pupils 
depends upon whether or not his city has a free- 
book system. If it has, then the requisitioning of 
supplies within a definite appropriation becomes 
one of his important duties; if not, his responsi- 
bility is limited to seeing that his pupils supply 
themselves with the proper materials and that the 
few indigent pupils are supplied in accordance with 
the provisions usually made for them. 1 

In either case there is generally a restriction as to 

1 Richmond is typical: "Pupils in grades below the high schools 
who are unable to provide books may, on written application of 
parent or guardian, upon form prepared for same, be loaned books 
by the School Board; but in all such cases, the books shall be re- 
turned when the pupil leaves the school. . . . Parents or guardians 
applying for books for 'indigent pupils' must apply in person, and 
sign the application in the presence of the principal." — Rules and 
Regulations, 16. 

K 



130 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

the particular text-books and other supplies which 
may be used in the schools. Some cities have what 
is known as a " closed" list, where, for instance, 
only one title for the study of geography in each 
grade is permitted. Other cities have an "open" 
list, including a large number of titles for each 
subject in each grade, and impose upon the princi- 
pals the duty not only of requisitioning the proper 
quantities of books but also of choosing which 
books shall be used in their respective schools. 

Whatever the conditions, 1 the principal should 
know good books and good stationery, just as he 
should know good buildings. 2 It is assumed, there- 
fore, that the principal is concerned with (i) the 
selection of supplies, (2) the requisitioning of sup- 
plies, and (3) the care of supplies. 

1 A digest of State legislation affecting text-books is given in Chap- 
ter IX, on School-book Legislation, in Jeremiah W. Jenks, " Citizen- 
ship and the Schools," New York, 1906, p. 257. 

2 If the list is a "closed" one, it is not closed forever; and the 
principal should, at least as a "general" duty, influence the retention 
of good books and the rejection of poor ones. Note its recognition 
as a "specific" duty in Worcester: "The supervising principals, 
when requested by the committee on books and supplies, shall report 
in writing upon any proposition for the introduction of a text-book, 
book of reference, globe, map, or chart." — Regulations, Chapter 
III, Sec. 8. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUPILS 131 

1. The selection of supplies. The selection of 
other supplies is not a very serious problem, 1 but 
in choosing text-books the principal must exercise 
especial discretion. Nor will he depend entirely 
upon his own judgment. " Minerva-like in wisdom 
must be he who out of the depths of his own expe- 
rience and judgment can determine just what is 
the best book for his school. The wise man is he 
who secures the cooperation and collective judg- 
ment of the teachers in the subject." 2 

The principal considerations in the selection of 
a text-book are : — 

(a) Its mechanical make-up. 

Its general appearance should be considered; 
for, other things being equal, it is reasonable that 
pupils should have placed before them books which 
are artistic examples of the bookmaker's art, rather 
than those of inferior, uninstructive, or unattractive 
appearance. 

The bindings should be substantial and appro- 
priate. It is economy to buy a book that is well 

^'Blackboards should be dead black and unglazed, and the 
crayon should be soft enough to make a clear, heavy stroke." — 
Bagley, "Educative Process," p. 344. 

2 William L. Felter, Educational Review, Vol. XXXIII, April, 
1907, P- 397- 



132 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

bound ; and particularly is it an injury to the pupil 
to study a book so put together that he cannot use 
it without straining his eyes in the effort to read the 
print along the inside margins. 

The paper, in quality and tone, should contribute 
to the pupils' comfort; it " should be non-trans- 
parent, non-bibulous, without gloss, and not em- 
bossed by type." 1 

The type should be of simple style and sufficient 
size and widely leaded. "If every book, no matter 
what its merits, were rejected if its type were too 
small, the makers of such books would very quickly 
bring out new editions with a proper size of type." 2 

The illustrations should be clear-cut, unambiguous, 
artistic, and accurate. 

(b) The text. 

The vocabulary and style should be appropriate 
to the work in hand for the pupils of the grade. 

The presentation of the subject-matter should be 
in accordance with good pedagogic methods. 

The text should be adequately supplemented and 
reenforced by illustrations, maps, diagrams, etc., 
such as really illustrate and explain. 

2. The requisitioning of supplies. The principal 

^owe, op. tit., p. 13. 2 Shaw, op. cit., p. 177. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUPILS 1 33 

is usually given a definite appropriation for supplies 
of all kinds for the fiscal year. 1 He is expected to 
exercise care and economy in its expenditure, and 
he will do well, at the outset of the year, to sub- 
divide his allowance, allotting definite amounts for 
the purchase of different classes of material. He is 
more likely, in this way, to order supplies judiciously 
and in good proportion as related to the different 
activities of the school. 

The following is offered as a suggestive scheme to be 
used as the basis of allotment : — 

I. Text-books: — 

Grade by grade and subject by subject, as re- 
quired by the curriculum. 
II. General Supplies : — • 

a. Stationery: blankbooks, pads, paper, en- 
velopes, . . . 
6. Writing materials : pens, penholders, pencils, 
ink, chalk, . . . 

c. Records : books, blanks, cards, . . . 

d. Miscellaneous: book covers, mucilage, rul- 

ers, rubbers, pointers, paper fasteners, . . . 

1 This appropriation is generally based upon the number of pupils 
of each grade. It might properly consider another factor, viz.: 
the kind of pupils as to their home environment, etc., as in some dis- 
tricts and under certain conditions, books are subjected to a "wear 
and tear" that is not normal to another district or condition. 



134 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

III. Special Supplies : — 

a. Drawing: paper, crayons, colors, models, 

paste, compasses, . . . 

b. Cooking : utensils, china ware, cutlery, . . . 

c. Sewing: needles, scissors, thread, buttons, 

gingham, . . . 

d. Carpentry: tools, wood, screws, nails, 

paint, . . . 

e. Kindergarten: gifts, yarn, paste, needles, 

weaving materials, . . . 

IV. Apparatus : — 

a. Science : chemicals, physical apparatus, . . . 

b. Gymnastic : bells, clubs, wands, . . . 

c. General: globes, maps, charts, stereo- 

scopes, . . . 

This will be modified by local and temporary conditions, 
such as the necessity for providing for newly formed 
classes, for revisions of the curriculum, etc. 

Supplies for cleaning and caring for the building, used 
by the janitor, are usually charged to a separate account. 

Some cities have a Library Fund against which are 
charged books which make up Class Libraries or the 
Teachers' Reference Library. If this is not the case, these 
items would be interpolated in the above scheme as sub- 
divisions under I. 

3. The care of supplies. The first consideration 
in caring for supplies is to keep proper account of 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUPILS 135 

them. In some cities, the method of account is 
prescribed in detail; in all, some method is pre- 
supposed, as is shown by the regulations regarding 
requisitions, 1 inventories, 2 etc. 

Just as the principal must give an accounting to 
his superiors for supplies, so must he require some 
sort of accounting from the teachers to whom he 
forwards those supplies. It is an extreme method, 
which takes the view that the teachers know what 
they need, should be given free access at all times 
to the stock room and permitted to help themselves, 
thus leaving the principal nothing else to do than 
to keep the stock room constantly supplied. The 
other extreme is to require from the teachers a 
written receipt in detail for all supplies sent them. 

1 "Principals shall issue to each room on the written requisition 
of the teacher thereof the text-books and supplies needed for such 
room. . . ." — St. Louis, Rules, 39, Sec. vii. 

2 "He (the principal) shall ... at the end of each fiscal year 
. . . furnish an inventory of all the books and stationery belonging 
to the school." — Jersey City, Rules, Principals, ix. 

"An accurate inventory shall be made, during the last week of 
June in each year, of the books, slates, maps, and all other articles 
usually embraced under the name of supplies in every school under 
the jurisdiction of the Board. ... A duplicate of the June inven- 
tory shall be used as the basis of the receipt to be given by the janitor 
to the principal on the closing of the schools for the summer." — New 
York, By-Laws, Sec. 32, par. 10. 



136 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

Between these two extremes there can be. found some 
profitable middle course, determined largely by the 
temperament of the principal and the conditions 
under which he is working. 

The following system for the handling of text-books is 
submitted : — 

When books are sent from stock to a class, a Charge 
Slip is filled out and sent with them, thus : — 



To be kept by the teacher 

jcwv. 7* i9o<? 
To the teacher of 

Class 8 &. 771. 
I Charge your Book Account with 
f2 gcyicbif /Hot. of It. a/. 

(No.) (Author) (Title) 

Your number on hand was . 32 
Your number now is . . . %■*/■ 

If this is correct, please keep this half of 
this sheet, and sign and return the other 
half. 

Principal 



To be sent to the office 

few,. 7, i9°& 

Class <? d. ?H. 
Received from Stock 

/i gcyidy /Hot. of U. d. 

(No.) (Author) (Title) 

Making number now on hand ty-ty- 

Teacher 



The teacher acknowledges delivery by signing and 
returning the half indicated. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUPILS 



137 



When the teacher returns books to the office as worn 
out, or to replenish stock, or when she, for any other reason, 
should be charged with fewer books, a Credit Slip, on 
different colored paper, is filled out and signed by the 
principal ; and the teacher returns the right-hand half as 
a certificate as to its correctness. 



To be kept by the teacher 

Qgwi. /&, igoS" 
To the teacher of 

Class S CC. 7ft. 
I Credit your Book Account with 
5 ^ovcUf flflat. of 1i. of. 

(No.) (Author) (Title) 

Your number on hand was . 44- 
Your number now is . . . 3tf 



If this is correct, please keep this half of 
this sheet, and sign and return the other 
half. 

Principal 



To be sent to the office 

jcvyv. /&, 190c? 

Class S CC. 7ft. 
Sent to Stock 

5 $(yvoUy ZlfuZ. of %. of. 
(No.) (Author) (Title) 

Leaving number now on hand 3tf 
Teacher 



Whenever a Charge or a Credit Slip is issued, the office 
half is placed on file, and the teacher keeps her half as part 
of her records. In both cases the last previous slip for 
the same title is destroyed. Hence both principal and 
teacher have always on hand a number of slips equal 
to the number of different titles of books used in that 



138 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

class; and each slip shows the present state of the 
account, together with the figures of the latest trans- 
action. 

Books are considered either Usable or Unusable ; they 
are either current coin or they are not ; if not, they are to 
be withdrawn from circulation. Teachers file, some weeks 
in advance, Unusable Slips, as : — 

b&e,. «5", 190^ 
Class 8 d. M 

I estimate that on jaw,. t5- — , 190*?, about 

_._<5— of the... 82 gouty /floZ. ojtA&lL. tf. 

(Number) (No. on hand) (Author) (Title) 

charged to my Book Account will be Unusable. 



Teacher 

The principal's file of these Unusable Slips, together 
with his file of Charge and Credit slips and his Stock 
Sheet, give him all the data necessary for the making out 
of a requisition or an inventory. He will find very useful 
a chart tabulating the figures of his Charge and Credit 
file and his Stock Sheet, a form of which is suggested 
in the accompanying fragment. 



OO 

O 

o 

pq 

w 

H 


< 


<.SO <Q 


<.so 


<a 


o 
W 

W 


I! 

W 5 
■£ 


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b 
A- .3 

2* £ 




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<u 
In 

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to 

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OOhO O 

CO CO Tj- M tJ- 




Hist, of 
U.S. 

School 
Hist, of 
U.S. 


M.8 

Ej.S 




A Hist, of 
the U.S. 
and Its 
People 

The 
American 

Cities 






o 53 


73 
O 

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4) 
M O 




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O 

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QOwO 


O M lO CO O 






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CO 

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CO "«• CO 






Practical 
Arith. 

Standard 
Algebra 


.SB 




** 1 

li 1 


b | 

rf'O'cS 
C/3 cs!> 






W 
Q 
< 


PQ 

00 


00 


PQ 



TEXT-BOOKS 


Grade 


Mathematics 


Geography 


History and Civics 


Language 


Reading 


Music, Physiology, etc. 


Grade 




Went- 
worth 


Practical 
Arith. 


B 40 
G 42 
S 12 
O 


Adams 


Com. 
Geog. 


D 42 
G 42 
S 3 
O 8 


Fiske 


Hist, of 

U.S. 


B 42 
G 4S 
S 2 

s 


Max- 
well 


Adv. Les. 

in 

Grammar 


B 42 
G42 
S 10 
O 


Shake- 
speare 


Julius 
Cassar 


B 41 
G 43 
S 
O 30 


Philips 

and 

Lewis 


The Song 
Sheaf 


B 25 
G 22 
S 
O 20 




8B 


Atwood 


Standard 
Algebra 


B 41 
G 42 
S 
G 20 








Mc 
Master 

For- 
man 


School 
Hist, of 
U.S. 

First 
Lessons 
in Civics 


B 45 
G45 
S 
O 

B 40 
G43 
S 2 
O 10 


Webster 


Academic 
Diet. 


B 42 
G 45 
S 
O 


Scott 


Ivanhoe 


B 46 
G 44 
S 15 
O 


Jewett 


Town 
and City 


B 42 
G43 
S 
O 


8B 




Seaver 

and 

Walton 


New 
Franklin 
Arith., II 


M40 
G 38 
S 2 

O 5 


Dodge 


Reader 
in Phys. 
Geog. 


B 40 
M42 
G45 

O I 


Gordy 


A Hist, of 
the U.S. 


B 41 

M40 
G 40 
S 10 
O 


Max- 
well 


Adv. Les. 

in 

Grammar 


Sr 39 
M30 

G41 

S 




Shake- 
speare 


Merchant 
of Venice 


B 40 
M40 
G 40 
S 10 
O 


Philips 

and 

Lewis 


The Song 
Sheaf 


B 20 

M 21 

S 2 o 
O 




8 A 














Eggle- 
ston 


A Hist, of 
the U.S. 
and Its 
People 


B 39 
M30 
G 41 
S 
O 20 


Webster 


Academic 
Diet. 


B 40 

M40 

G 41 












Thorn ology 
son rs 


B 42 
M41 
G 40 
S 


8 A 












The 
American 


B 4 

M 








Walsh 


M 






B = Boys' class. M = Mixed class. G = Girls' class. S = In stock. O = On order. 










Entries of titles, etc., are made in ink ; of the number of books, in penci 


. When 










the number changes, a corresponding change is made in the pencil entry. This chart 


7B 








gives at once a bird's-eye view of the text-book situation and a detailed summary of the 




















conditions. 



















THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUPILS 139 

Beyond accounting for supplies, the principal is 
responsible for their proper care by teachers and 
pupils; and it is evident that in proportion as he 
holds the teachers responsible, they in turn will hold 
the pupils responsible. Each pupil upon receiv- 
ing his books must be required to protect them by 
an outside paper or cloth cover; and to label them 
with a memorandum showing the name of the 
pupil, school, date, condition of the book when issued, 
etc. It is necessary for the principal each term 
personally to examine books to see that this has been 
done, or to require the teachers to file a statement 
that they have examined the books and found them 
properly labeled and covered. 

Teachers may be shown their relation to the mat- 
ter of damage to supplies by a specific regulation 
to this effect: "You are responsible for the proper 
care by the pupils of books and other school property. 
Report promptly any cases of neglect which you 
cannot adequately discipline.' ' How to treat pupils 
who damage or lose text-books or other supplies is 
rarely a problem. If the pupil is ready and willing 
to make good the damage or loss, the difficulty adjusts 
itself. If he does not voluntarily do so, the specific 
rights and powers of the principal, usually denned 



140 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

by the Rules, although varying in different cities, 
are quite sufficient to cover the case. 

Typical conditions are : — 

Jersey City : " Pupils who have once been supplied with 
books shall be required by the principal to replace or pay 
for them in case of loss or unnecessary injury.' ' — Rules, 
LXI. 

Baltimore: ". . . in case of loss or wanton destruction 
by any pupil, they (principals) shall require such pupil to 
replace the same." — Rules, Art. VII, 5. 

St. Louis: "Pupils who are required to pay for text- 
books or supplies destroyed by them shall make such 
payment to the Secretary of the Board. . . ." Regu- 
lations, XXI, Sec. x. 

Newark: "Any injury by a pupil to books or school 
articles, or to the furniture or building, shall be paid for 
by the parent or guardian in accordance with a bill to be 
rendered by the principal. In case payment be refused, 
the pupil shall be suspended, . . ." — Rules, V, 10, ii (b). 

4. Decoration 

Although it is quite impossible to reduce to any 
mathematical ratio the extent to which pupils are 
affected by the quality of their material environment, 
nevertheless it must be admitted that they are dis- 
tinctly influenced by their surroundings, and that it 
becomes a duty of the school to provide something 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUPILS 141 

more than mere ' l housing. ' ' Even the most wretched 
of schoolrooms admits of some decorative treatment 
which will reduce the ill effects of the cheerless 
atmosphere. The duty of the principal lies in both 
directions, the positive and the negative; he will 
encourage teachers, pupils, and parents in their 
praiseworthy efforts to decorate their schoolrooms; 
and he will restrain them in any mistaken zeal which 
finds expression in the mediocre, the unfit, or the 
uninspiring. 1 

The principal can use his influence toward having 
proper wall surfaces provided by the building depart- 
ment. " Avoid glaring white walls. Broken colors 
(i.e. colors modified by gray) are advised. For 
north and west exposures, use warm colors. For 
south and east exposures, use cool colors. The 
natural lighting of the room should govern the depth 
of color used." The wall surface, properly pre- 
pared, is itself a suggestion of artistic treatment by 
means of pictures, and the principal can encourage 
their acquisition. In some cities, pictures and casts 
are subject to requisition as general supplies. In 

1 A comprehensive and interesting treatment of the whole subject 
of schoolroom decoration will be found in Chapters VI-VIII, Bur- 
rage and Bailey, op. cit. 



142 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

others, certain methods of raising money for their 
purchase are officially recognized. Parents may 
cooperate with teachers in subscribing funds, or 
school exercises may be held to which an admission 
fee is charged. Some firms of art publishers loan 
exhibits of standard pictures on a basis of a com- 
mission on the sale of tickets of admission. 

Suggestions concerning pictures for wall decora- 
tion are here given. They are based upon con- 
siderations both of art and of public and pedagogic 
policy, and are a digest, in the main, of circulars 
issued by the New York State Education Depart- 
ment, Division of Visual Instruction. 

i. "The subject must be of recognized artistic 
value and appropriate to the use of the grade or 
department for which it is selected." 

2. Those subjects should be avoided which are 
objectionable: (i) "on religious grounds, as tending 
to irreverence for things held sacred, or as tending 
to dignify and enforce or to ridicule or antagonize 
particular doctrines" ; (2) "on ethical grounds, as 
tending to make vice or questionable habits familiar 
or attractive, or as disregarding prejudice against the 
nude in art," or on emotional grounds, as portraying 
the painful. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUPILS 143 

3. The best type of picture is a high-grade pho- 
tographic reproduction; engravings, etchings, and 
color prints are to be avoided. 

4. "The impression made by one large picture, 
and the effect it produces on the mind and thought 
of the pupil, is far greater than that made by several 
small pictures." 

5. "The frame should be of hard wood, preferably 
well-seasoned quartered oak, three or four inches 
wide, without grooves or other devices for collecting 
dust. The color of the frame should tone into the 
picture. French glass of first quality should be 
used. Framing with mat or margin should be 
avoided unless such treatment is essential to the 
effectiveness of the picture." 



CHAPTER VII 

THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 

The principal has a broad responsibility for the 
care of the pupils of his school : he must protect 
and develop them along physical, mental, and moral 
lines. The first of these responsibilities will be 
considered in this chapter, under three heads: 
(i) General Care, (2) Physical Protection, (3) En- 
trance and Exit. 

1. General Care 

A pupil duly sent to school by its parents is under 
the responsible care of the principal until he is 
formally dismissed at the close of the session. 1 This 

1 How far the authority of the principal over his pupils extends 
beyond the portals of the schoolhouse and the time-limits of the 
daily session, is but loosely defined in many states. In an in- 
teresting article on the subject, Mr. Fremont L. Pugsley says: "The 
law may, therefore, be regarded as well settled . . ., and may be 
thus briefly stated : School authorities have the power granted by the 
state, not by the districts or towns, to exercise reasonable control 
over the conduct of school children wherever and whenever such 
control is necessary to the discipline and general welfare of the 
schools; and the necessity for extending this control beyond the 

144 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 145 

leads to the question whether individual pupils 
should be permitted to leave the school building 
during the session, and if so, under what circum- 
stances. 
1. In case of illness. 

Occasionally a conscientious and ambitious pupil 
comes to school when his physical condition demands 
that he should have remained at home. Teachers 
should be trained to detect such cases and refer them 
to the principal, who may then exercise his judgment 
as to sending the pupil home. Sometimes a pupil 
becomes suddenly ill during the session. 1 For such 
cases, if there is some chance of the principal's not 
being in his office at the time, it is best to give teachers 
authority, in advance, to dismiss a pupil and report 
the fact, rather than to have the case referred to the 
principal with resulting delay. Frequently, it may 
be wise to send an ill pupil home under the escort 
of some other pupil of sufficient maturity and judg- 

limits of school buildings and grounds arises whenever the effect of 
acts done by pupils or parents or other persons beyond these limits, 
comes directly within them to the detriment of the discipline or the 
general welfare of the schools." Education, January, 1908, p. 272. 
1 "Teachers should be careful to excuse from school the child 
who does not feel well, especially if his face be flushed or his throat 
sore." — Rowe, op. cit., p. 86. 



146 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

ment. On the other hand, for many cases, especially 
of accident, it is better to make the pupil com- 
fortable in the school, and to send for the parent, 
to whom the responsibility for the child may then 
be transferred. 
2. In cases of discipline. 

It is very questionable whether a pupil referred to 
the principal for discipline should ever be sent out 
of the school during a session, except in the case of 
one who is willfully insubordinate to the principal 
and defiant and menacing. Usually, in such a 
case, the eviction of the pupil should be the outward 
and visible sign of a formal and official suspension 
under the rules of the department, and not merely 
a hasty order, " Get out and don't come back without 
your father." In all ordinary cases of discipline, 
even if the pupil is temporarily withdrawn from his 
class, it is wiser to keep him under school control 
until the time of the regular dismissal. Yet, if a 
pupil willfully dismisses himself without permission, 
shall the principal prevent him by any physical 
compulsion? It would seem unwise, under any 
circumstances, for a teacher or principal to "run 
after" a boy who thus disposes of his own "case." 
Left to himself, he is sooner or later brought logically 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 147 

to a realization of the fact that such a dismissal was 
but one more link in the chain of evidence of his 
misconduct which he had been forging for himself. 
3. On the parent's request. 

When a parent, having once formally enrolled his 
child in the school and sent him for the session, 
requests his dismissal before the close of the session, 
shall his request be granted ? Whatever the princi- 
pal^ legal rights, he may well exercise discretion in 
the matter. It is important that the child respect 
the authority of his parents, and yet careless or 
thoughtless parents are prone to make unnecessary 
requests for the dismissal of their children. In the 
interest of the child concerned and of the school as 
a whole, it is therefore justifiable to make the secur- 
ing of such dismissal as difficult as possible. There 
are various degrees of rigidity which may be main- 
tained : — 

(a) Pupils may be permitted to leave at any time 
during a session, and a note of explanation required 
from the parent upon the pupil's return. 

(b) Pupils may be permitted to leave only upon the 
written request of the parent. 

The objection to either of these rules is that a 
considerable proportion of parents are thoughtless 



148 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

in a matter of this kind, and the earnest or pouting 
plea of the child to be permitted to go along on a 
shopping expedition, for instance, is not resisted; 
the writing of a note to the teacher or principal is 
a small price to pay for freedom from the child's 
insistence. 

(c) Pupils may be dismissed only upon the personal 
application of the parent at the school. If such a 
rule is made and enforced, two distinct advantages 
accrue : the parent is less likely to make the request 
on any but serious accounts ; and the presence of the 
parent gives the principal the opportunity to discuss 
the matter and to indicate that it is the parent who 
is taking upon himself the responsibility for the loss 
of school work which the child suffers. 1 

(d) All requests for dismissal may be refused on 
the ground that if it is important that a pupil should 
be out of school part of the session, it must be im- 

1 Cf. Louisville: "No pupil, after entering school in the morn- 
ing, shall leave the grounds without the consent of the principal; 
nor shall any pupil be dismissed except at the written request of 
parent or guardian. All such requests, however, shall be discouraged 
by the principal as much as possible." — Manual, Sec. 5, Rule 8. 

Also, St. Louis: "No pupil shall be allowed to be absent from 
school during the regular sessions to take music, drawing, dancing, 
or any other lessons." — Rules, Sec. v, Rule 49. 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 149 

portant enough for him to remain out the entire 
session. The justification of such a rule is in the 
fact that for one pupil to leave a class room during 
a session, gathering and packing up his books and 
getting his hat and coat, usually distracts the atten- 
tion of the class at least one minute, and that it is 
better that the pupil should lose fifty minutes for 
which he is responsible, than that fifty pupils should 
each lose one minute for which they are not re- 
sponsible. 
4. For messenger service. 

It is often necessary to send a pupil out of the 
building on an errand. It is unwise to select pupils 
at random for such service. The personal safety 
of the pupil is endangered, and although the chance 
of a pupil's meeting with accident is extremely 
small, the principal should not take even that chance 
unwarrantably. 

The principal may be guided by the following 
rules: 1. A pupil should not be sent out except 
on a necessary or emergency errand. 2. Teachers 
should not be permitted to send pupils without the 
special authority of the principal. 3. Only a pupil 
of sufficient maturity and discretion should be so 
employed. 4. The consent of the pupil should be 



150 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

obtained. 5. A systematic handling will enable the 
principal to secure also the consent of the parent. 

The following system is suggested. At the beginning 
of each year, each teacher of upper-grade boys is requested 
thus: 

IC)0___ 

M _ _: 

Please write below the names of five boys who are willing 
to do occasional errands for us outside the building, and 
whose class progress, in your judgment, will not be affected 
thereby. 

i.__ _ __ _ 

2 

3 

4 

5 

The pupils thus selected are given notes to their parents 
in this form : — 

Public School No. ioo, 
Broadway and Fulton St., 



New York, 190. 



M. 



Dear ^ 

It often happens in connection with our school work 
that there are errands to be done outside the school build- 
ing. 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 151 

has expressed a willingness to be of service 

to us in this manner. His class work seems to be of such 
average excellence as to allow of whatever loss of time it 
might involve. 

If you are willing that he should be sent on such occa- 
sional errands, kindly signify your permission by signing 

the accompanying note. 

Respectfully yours, 

(Principal) 
with inclosure thus : — 

New York, 190--- 

To the Principal, 

Public School No. 100, 

New York. 

Dear Sir : 

I am entirely willing that my son, .,should 

occasionally be sent on errands outside of the school build- 
ing, so long as his class progress permit. 
Yours truly, 

(Signed) 



From the returns of these authorizing notes, a messen- 
ger list may be made up, showing names of messengers 
and their class rooms. When a boy is sent on an errand, 
it may be noted on this list ; or better, the pupil may fill 
out a memorandum to be kept on file as protection to the 
principal and for future reference : — 



152 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

MESSENGER 

Name. , 

Room , i9o__. 

Sent to 

For 

Time of Leaving :. Of Return.— : 

2. Physical Protection 

Principal and teachers must, by good teaching 
method and by proper manipulation of the factors of 
material equipment, minister to the physical welfare 
of the pupils. 
i. By care of the class rooms. 

The janitor should have definite instructions as 
to the extent and frequency of his cleaning of the 
class rooms, and the teachers should be required to 
report promptly any dereliction of the janitor in this 
respect. 

It may be noted, in passing, that teachers should 
not be permitted to give directions to the janitor. 
All orders to the janitor should issue from the princi- 
pal. This would apply to all forms of janitorial 
service desired by any teacher; she should be re- 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 153 

quired to submit her requests to the principal. It 
is but fair to the janitor that he should be subject 
to the orders of but a single head, whose directions 
are likely to be consistent and uniform. 1 

Teachers and pupils should learn to take such 
pride in the condition of their class rooms as to make 
impossible any serious accumulation of dirt, even in 
out-of-the-way corners of the rooms or wardrobes, 
thus reducing the chance of contagion through 
microbe- assimilating dust and dirt. 
2. By proper heating and ventilating. 

The principal must instruct teachers in that part 
of the operation of the local apparatus with which 
they are directly concerned, showing how the tem- 
perature and ventilation are to be regulated. If the 
heating system is steam, with radiators controlled 
by hand, he must explain the use of the valves; if 
controlled by thermostat, he must explain the neces- 
sity for the teacher's leaving the apparatus alone, 
but require her to report promptly any defect in 

1 The time at which the janitor should have "right of way" at 
the close of the session, should be definitely settled upon. Required, 
for instance, in Minneapolis: "Principals shall make arrangements 
with reference to the teachers in their buildings, so that the janitors 
can begin their work at 3.50 p.m., and continue it without" interrup- 
tion." Rules, Sec. 32. 



154 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

its operation. She must understand, too, that the 
sharp clicking sound in the radiator which often 
accompanies the turning on or off of the steam is 
what is known as water-hammer, — caused by steam 
and water flowing in opposite directions in the 
coils, — and is not dangerous, and is only serious 
as it is annoying to the ear. 

If the automatic heating system is accompanied 
by a system of ventilation, the teacher must under- 
stand the necessity for keeping the windows of the 
room closed while the system is in operation. To 
open windows is to cause a circulation of the air 
from the inlets to and from the windows in a zone 
above the level of the pupils, thus leaving the impure 
air in the lower part of the room as the only supply 
for the pupils. The keeping open of windows or 
doors in one room leads to the disturbance of the 
proper circulation throughout the entire tier of rooms 
depending upon the same duct for their fresh supply. 

The chief danger, however, is that the teacher 
will regulate the temperature and ventilation to suit 
herself and not to suit the needs of the pupils. She 
is usually more active physically, and thus needs less 
heat than her pupils ; or she may be suffering with 
some form of throat affection which may make her 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 155 

require more heat than her pupils. In either case, 
her attention must be called to her duty to the class. 

In spite of the best of apparatus for heating and 
ventilating, exceptional conditions will occasionally 
result in the temperature of a class room reaching 
abnormal figures. In some cities principals are 
specifically authorized, within certain restrictions, to 
dismiss classes when this is the case ; for example, 
in St. Louis, where the limits are below 6o° and above 
90 , and in Jersey City, where they are 65 and 85 
for primary classes and 6o° and 90 for grammar 
classes. 
3. By preventing body strain. 

The definition of correct posture should be under- 
stood by the teachers. It does not mean that every 
child is to sit or stand throughout the school day in 
an absolutely ideal position; but the size and ar- 
rangement of the furniture should be such as to 
permit his assuming correct posture most of the 
time. The seating of pupils by some artificial 
standard, as, for instance, according to their rank, 
changing seats periodically, should not be done if 
it is at the expense of possible proper posture. To 
make a small boy sit in a high seat at a high desk, 
because he is successful in his school work, and to 



156 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

make an overgrown boy sit in a low seat at a desk 
so low that he can only with difficulty get his legs 
under it, because he is backward or dull, is not 
making the best use of even poor school furniture. 
Pupils do not sit on a mental basis. The teacher 
must be alert to notice the pupil who is misfitted 
to his seat and desk and to give him relief by chang- 
ing his seat, or, if the furniture is adjustable, regu- 
lating it to suit his needs. Careless or slouchy pos- 
ture while sitting, standing, or walking, should not 
be permitted ; correct habits should be formed early 
and maintained throughout. 
4. By preventing eye strain. 

The teacher must be constantly on the alert to 
regulate conditions. 1. She must see that pupils are 
properly seated as related to the blackboards, charts, 
etc. 2. She must have correct posture during all 
writing exercises. 3. She will not have too large a 
proportion of the school work done at a point near 
the eyes, using the blackboard as much as possible, 
especially in the lower grades. 4. She must require 
pupils in their blackboard work to bear heavily 
enough upon the chalk to make the writing easily 
legible. 5. She must regulate the window shades 
so that lights and shadows, especially upon the 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 157 

blackboards, will be properly proportioned. More- 
over, as has been noted, the principal, in his selection 
of text-books, maps, and charts, will secure such as 
have sizable type. 1 

The lighting of the room is not discussed, because that 
is more properly a matter of the construction of the build- 
ing. Dr. Shaw enumerates certain rules: 2 1. Window 
surface should be one fourth to one sixth of floor surface. 
2. Light should come from the left, or possibly from the 
rear. 3. There should be little space between windows. 

4. Windows should extend to the ceiling. 5. Window sills 
should be three and one half to four feet above the floor. 
6. Window shades should be of darker tone than the room. 

5. By regulating the amount of home study. 
Teachers are prone to overload pupils with re- 
quired home work, especially the preparation of 
written exercises. It is debatable whether it is wise, 
especially in certain neighborhoods, to require any 

1 Dr. Rowe {op. tit., p. 9) gives as other causes of defective eye- 
sight: tight neckwear, rubbing the eyes, disease, cigarette smoking, 
and unhealthy home conditions. On the misfocused eye, see Francis 
Walker, "The Study of Children," New York, 1899. Speaking of 
nearsightedness, he says: "This condition is not found at birth, 
though the tendency to short sight may be inherited; it usually 
develops during school life, and is in part preventable by the use of 
glasses and attention to the position of the child when at work," p. 29. 

2 Op. cit., p. 8 et seq. 



158 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

written home work. On one side, it maybe said that 
many pupils are entirely without facilities at home 
for preparing written exercises, and that forcing 
them into competition with their more fortunate 
classmates is manifestly unfair. On the other 
side, it may be said in reply, that the very require- 
ment by the school of such exercises leads to a better 
recognition in the home of the rights of the child, 
and results in gain both to the child and the home. 
The following regulation of the subject represents 
an average condition as to written home work : — 

1. It shall be required as a class exercise, in years 
7 and 8, on not more than three days in the week; 
in years 5 and 6, on not more than two days; in 
years 2, 3, and 4, on not more than one day ; in year 
1, on no day. 

2. It may be required as an individual exercise, 
in years 7 and 8, on not more than four days in the 
week; in years 5 and 6, on not more than three 
days; in years 2, 3, and 4, on not more than two 
days ; in year 1, on no day. Days for class exercises 
to be included in the foregoing. 

3. It may be given to any individual pupil at any 
time in excess of the above limitations, but only 
when it is clearly understood that such work is 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 159 

optional, and failure to do it is not a matter of 
demerit. 

The Board of Superintendents of New York City makes 
the following recommendations : — 

1. Pupils should be required to carry home not more 
than one book in years 1-4 ; not more than two books in 
years 5 and 6; and not more than three books in years 
7 and 8. 

2. Home study from books should be restricted to one 
subject each day in years 1-4; to two subjects in years 
5 and 6 ; to three subjects in years 7 and 8. 

3. The time given to study should be restricted to one 
hour each day in years 1-6 ; and to one and one half hours 
in years 7 and 8. 

6. By preventing the spread of contagious disease. 

Teachers must learn the indications and be over- 
suspicious rather than otherwise. 1 In most cities 
there is formal cooperation provided with the De- 
partment of Health, so that the principal works with 
and through a representative of that department, 
a physician or nurse, or both. That department 
is usually clothed with practically unlimited legal 
powers, one of which is the exclusion of pupils 
summarily. 

1 See Shaw, op. cit. y Chapter XII; Walker, op. cit. t p. 227 et seq., 
and Burrage and Bailey, op. cit., Chapter IX. 



160 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 
The Philadelphia form is typical : — 

Department of Public Health and Charities 
BUREAU OF HEALTH 



Division of School Inspection 
Room 612, City Hall 



Philadelphia, 

Mrs 



-190—. 



My Dear Madam: 

This is to notify you that your child 

, in attendance upon 

School, is in need of medical attention for 



For the best interests of the child you are advised to 
consult a physician, hospital, or dispensary without delay. 

Medical Inspector 

Particularly aggravating and usually very con- 
tagious is pediculosis capitis. Here teachers must 
be taught to be observant and to handle such cases 
with good judgment and tact. The average parent 
resents the interest of the school authorities in such a 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 161 

matter ; but this is, of course, the result of ignorance 
or misunderstanding. If the case is carefully stated 
to the parent, and no tinge of disgrace permitted to 
color the report, the necessity and justification of 
action can be shown to him. 

7. By examination of pupils to discover physical 

defects. 
In some cities this is done by agents of the Depart- 
ment of Health. Teachers can, however, by fre- 
quent tests of vision and hearing, discover cases 
requiring professional attention; in these cases, 
formal reports should be made to the parents. 1 
Affections of nose and throat are frequent causes of 
serious mental defects in pupils, and removal of 
these causes almost invariably results favorably 
to the mental condition of the children. 

8. By discovering or preventing pathological fatigue. 2 
" ' Pathological fatigue' may be due to many 

things. Overwork is commonly supposed to be 
one of them. It may be said, however, that in 
children this is not very frequently the case." 3 

x Dr. Rowe states {op. ciL, p. 34) that over ninety per cent of 
cases of deafness affecting one ear can be cured. 

2 As' distinguished from normal or temporary fatigue. Cf. p. 98. 

3 Dr. Smith Baker, Educational Review, Vol. XV, 1898, p. 34 et 
seq. Also see Walker, op. cit., p. 143. 



1 62 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

Some of the causes cited by Dr. Baker are : unhealthy 
confinement within doors; unwholesome shocks; 
"puzzlings, confusions, and conflicts of impulses 
resulting from the imposition of scatter-brain notions 
of teaching and discipline ;" chronic apprehension 
and fear caused by injudicious exercise of " author- 
ity" ; overstimulated ambitions; disproportionate 
pressure and rivalries ; constitutional defects, serving 
as "luxurious soil," such as defects of hearing and 
seeing, blood vessels supplying the brain of too small 
a size, inadequate heart beat, undeveloped brain and 
nervous system, deficient digestion, poor blood, 
organism more or less diseased. Dangerous fatigue 
should be looked for, he says, when the angles of 
the mouth are found depressed, there are horizontal 
furrows across the forehead, the eyes wander or 
fix nowhere, the pupils are dilated, there is a 
fullness or blue coloration beneath the eyes, there 
is seen a broad white line encircling the mouth, there 
are bright red "blush-spots" on the cheeks or neck, 
the skin is muddy or hot or dry, the pulse is noted 
to be unusually slow or rapid, — culminating in 
"the three 'cardinal symptoms' of danger which 
all, whether young or old, should heed; namely, 
a very deep sense of misery in the morning, one or 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 163 

more 'insistent ideas' which cannot be thrown off, 
and finally so thorough a wearing out that the 
subject becomes anaesthetic to- fatigue — that is, he 
is so weary that he cannot feel his own weariness." 
9. By studying and reporting all cases of pupils 
mentally defective. 
Pupils with serious physical defects — the blind, 
mute, deaf, etc. — do not as a rule get admission to 
the public school. Pupils mentally defective, how- 
ever, are frequently admitted. In the case of such a 
pupil, his defect often remains undiscovered, or if 
considered at all, is summarily disposed of as mis- 
conduct and treated as a case of discipline. It 
should be the duty of the teacher to detect such 
cases, or at least to be suspicious that certain pupils 
are defective, and the duty of the principal to con- 
sider such cases very carefully and diagnose them, 
with the aid, when it is possible to secure it, of par- 
ents and professional experts. Dr. Henderson, 1 sub- 
dividing the feeble minded into imbeciles and idiots, 
distinguishes idiocy as " mental deficiency depend- 
ing upon malnutrition or disease of the nervous 

Charles Richmond Henderson, "Introduction to the Study of 
Dependent, Defective, and Delinquent Classes," Boston, 1904, 
p. 174. 



1 64 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

centers, occurring either before birth or before the 
evolution of the mental faculties in childhood," and 
imbecility as u a less decided degree of mental in- 
capacity." Teachers must remember that " children 
who are simply slow to understand and backward 
in learning, but sound in brain, should not be classed 
with defectives." 

Special attention is given to defectives in the New York 
City schools by the organization of supplementary classes. 
The four following requirements are emphasized by Su- 
perintendent Maxwell : (i) expert supervision; (2) specially 
trained teachers; (3) properly equipped class rooms; 
(4) discrimination in choosing children for such classes. 

10. By special consideration for adolescent girls. 

The care of girls at their critical periods is com- 
monly neglected, especially in the elementary schools. 
There are several reasons for this. 1. The matter 
is generally regarded as a high school problem, 
whereas, as a matter of fact, more than a majority 
of schoolgirls mature while yet in the elementary 
school. 2. Teachers are careless or inattentive 
because of ignorance as to the importance of the 
subject. 3. In many schools the attendance record 
is overemphasized, and, in consequence, teachers 
urge their girls, and the girls urge themselves, to 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 165 

attend school when it would be better for them to 
absent themselves. 4. Physical adolescence is ac- 
companied by mental characteristics, one of the 
most prominent of which in many cases is the 
development and refinement of the sense of duty. 
Overconscientiousness and fidelity to the require- 
ments of the school lead the girl to neglect her 
physical well-being. 

Teachers should be brought to a proper under- 
standing of this subject. They should read some 
such book as Dr. Clarke's "Sex in Education." 
At least, they should understand that any girl who 
has reached maturity will accomplish a larger total 
amount of mental work by working steadily through 
all but two or three days of her month than by 
working at high pressure throughout the entire 
month. Moreover, she thus considerably lessens 
the chances of suffering serious disorder later in 
life. A clear and frank understanding between the 
teacher and the mothers of her girls will result in 
their realizing that the school recognizes instead 
of disregards the matter, and prefers that the girls 
shall periodically ease up in their work, either by 
absenting themselves or by coming to school unpre- 
pared in their lessons and free from the necessity 



166 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

of performing all the school exercises. Teachers, 
too, should be encouraged to refer special cases of 
threatened breakdown to the principal. In any 
class of girls, toward the end of the school year, there 
are usually two or three brighter than the average, 
whose ambition and fidelity have outrun a reason- 
able expenditure of physical energy. Many days 
before the end of the term they have reached a 
standing which the average members of the class 
will not reach by the term's end, and may be profit- 
ably advised to absent themselves for a few days to 
reestablish their physical equilibrium by free play 
and exercise in the open air. 

ii. By attention to the positive phase of physical 
development. 

By frequent formal lessons on personal hygiene, 
the teacher will instruct pupils in good habits which 
will maintain health and vigor. By formal gym- 
nastics, proper muscular and nervous development 
will be stimulated. By the encouragement of ath- 
letics, pupils will be strengthened along particular 
lines. (See later discussion, p. 306.) 
12. By regular recesses. 

All pupils of at least the first four years of school 
should have a scheduled period of recess, which 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 167 

should come as near the middle of the session as 
possible, but later rather than earlier than the middle. 
No child should be deprived of his recess on any 
disciplinary ground. The recesses of successive 
classes in a large school require supervision by the 
teachers; 1 and upon the principal is the duty of 
arranging so that they shall come at the best possible 
time and yet not conflict with one another. Within 
these necessary limitations, pupils should have a 
maximal amount of freedom. Free play in an out- 
door playground is, of course, best. If that is im- 
practicable, organized games under the supervision 
of the teacher are much better than merely keeping 
pupils in line throughout the recess period. The 
principal must provide for proper supervision of 
the toilet rooms by teachers, janitors, matrons, or 
monitors. 

In the case of the higher grade pupils, if there is 
no formal recess period, the teacher may profitably 
have frequent short periods of relaxation, setting-up 
exercises, or freedom from the ordinary restraints 
of the class room. 

1 Specifically required in some cities, e.g. Worcester: "All pupils 
must be under the personal supervision of teachers during every 
recess." — Regulations, Chapter I, Sec. 9. 



168 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

One of the most serious problems, especially for 
the new teacher, is the matter of granting the re- 
quests of individual pupils to leave the room during 
the session; if she grants all requests, there is the 
likelihood that the pupils will take advantage and 
make frequent and unnecessary requests; if she 
refuses to grant every request, positive physical 
injury may result to certain pupils ; if she exercises 
discretion, and permits some pupils and not others, 
she may misjudge and be regarded as partial and 
unjust. Many cases of " discipline" originate in 
this problem. Perhaps the safest general rule to 
lay down is that teachers should grant all requests 
(with a limitation merely as to the number of pupils 
to be allowed out of the same room at one time), 
and either have the pupils report to the principal 
before returning to the class, or have it understood 
that any case of what the teacher regards as unnec- 
essary frequency shall be reported to him. Either 
the pupil is normal and should need to leave the room 
very infrequently, or he is abnormal, and his case 
should be referred to his parents for their considera- 
tion, with a view to their securing medical advice. 

An effective method of control is to provide each teacher 
with a book wherein is to be entered the name of each pupil 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 169 

leaving the room and the amount of time lost thereby, 
emphasizing this factor by calling it a "Time Lost" book. 
By having the pupils make each his own entry, or by hav- 
ing a monitor near the door make all the entries, the keep- 
ing of the record is no tax upon the teacher. Occasional 
inspection of the record by the principal, with general 
comment on the amount of time lost, helps to keep down 
the amount. 

Such a record as this often supplies a valuable clew in 
tracing misdemeanors in the corridors by showing what 
pupils have been out of their rooms at any particular time. 

3. Entrance and Exit 

Careful supervision must be given to the entrance 
and exit of pupils, to the end that these shall be ef- 
fected in an orderly manner and with safety. It is 
wise to have some one in authority responsible, at 
all times, for the supervision of pupils. This necessi- 
tates the assignment of teachers or janitors to special 
duty in playground, play rooms, corridors, etc. If 
there is a sufficient number of men teachers in the 
school, they may be assigned to cover all of this 
duty as regards the boys, leaving to the women 
teachers the supervision of the girls' playgrounds 
only. An assignment of teachers to this duty in 
weekly shifts is probably most satisfactory; it is 



170 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

not an especially attractive form of service, and 
five days in succession is usually sufficient to satisfy 
the most aspiring teacher, for it means her presence 
in and about the playgrounds and corridors for the 
half hour or so preceding the opening of both morn- 
ing and afternoon sessions. The number of teachers 
assigned to such duty will depend upon the size of 
the school, the number of pupils, and the area to be 
supervised. As a general rule it may be expected 
that from about one sixth to one eighth of the 
teachers will be required for such duty; that is, the 
duty will recur for each teacher about once in six or 
eight weeks. 

The rigidity of the discipline to be maintained at 
these times must vary in degree with conditions. 
If there is ample playground area, great freedom 
may be allowed the pupils, permitting them to play 
games, run about, shout, and otherwise disport them- 
selves as is natural to the genus. On the other hand, 
if the playground area is limited, such freedom may 
result in serious accidents to pupils, and hence greater 
restriction must be placed upon them. It must be 
remembered, however, that it is better to set a stand- 
ard of less rigid deportment and have it conformed 
to, than to make rigid rules which are disregarded. 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 171 

For instance, it is better not to have a rule of 
"no talking" than to have such a rule and then 
allow whispering as a common occurrence; on the 
other hand, it is better to require "no talking" and 
get it, than to allow "whispering" and have it grow 
into boisterous conduct. 

As for conduct in halls and on stairways, there is 
something to be said in favor both of a laissez-faire 
condition and of its opposite — military discipline. 
When adults attend a concert, church service, or 
any other gathering, they enter the edifice about as 
they please, certainly with no military restrictions 
upon their conduct ; so if we are to train pupils for 
life, we should train them to enter the school building 
in an orderly manner, but without restraint, not pro- 
hibiting them from conversing in ordinary tones, but 
allowing them to saunter in as they would at any other 
public building. But military training, learning to 
act and march in unison, learning to carry one's self 
with proper posture and poise, are equally valuable 
accomplishments; hence, the forming of pupils on 
lines, the maintenance of these lines, and the march- 
ing in step, absolute requirement of "no talking," 
give valuable training and lead to orderly and well- 
mannered, not to say "showy," passage of pupils. 



172 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

The various stairways and exits should be num- 
bered or lettered and plainly designated by placards, 
and in each class room there should be posted a state- 
ment of the procedure for regular dismissals. 

In many cities periodic emergency dismissals, by 
way of drill to provide for safe exit in case of actual 
danger, are required by law or by board rules or 
both. Even when not specifically required, the 
principal should have them at least monthly or bi- 
monthly, both for the sake of the actual drill and for 
the confidence which such drills inspire, so that the 
public feels that it may trust the school authorities 
in an emergency. In planning for such drills : — 

i. The principal should study the lay of the land 
about the school building, noting the location of the 
fire hydrants, the nearest fire alarm station (there 
should be one in every schoolhouse), and the nearest 
firehouse. 

2. He will figure the route that is likely to be taken 
by the fire engines in coming to the building, and 
determine the locations for the best disposition of the 
pupils when they are out of the building. 

The pupils should travel a minimum distance from the 
school to a place of safety. Each class may be given a 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 173 

fixed position as related to certain landmarks, posts, trees, 
etc. ; or, if convenient, to houses as known by their num- 
bers. Or, where this is impracticable, the pupils first out 
from a given exit may go to a stated point and the remain- 
ing pupils form a continuous line from the exit. In this 
case it is especially necessary that some one be assigned 
to the duty of keeping the sidewalk about the exit free 
from pupils, and of preventing crowding by other people. 

3. He will schedule the exact route to be taken 
by each class to its position of safety, providing for 
the non-intersection of files of pupils, and where 
possible, arranging for the marching of pupils to 
music. 

4. He will arrange a code of signals for emergency 
dismissal. The larger the building, the less elabo- 
rate and complicated should it be. The simplest 
code is to have two signals, one for an emergency 
dismissal under ordinary circumstances, in which 
case the pupils take with them their hats and coats 
and perhaps their books ; the other for an immediate 
exit without waiting to get their outside clothing. 
The two signals, whether by class-room electric bells, 
hall gongs, or central bell, should be sufficiently 
distinct so that they will not be confused with each 
other or with the signal for regular dismissal. 



174 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

Two strokes of a gong, as distinguished from five strokes, 
is much better than signals of one and two strokes, of two 
and three, etc., for the teacher may have difficulty in deter- 
mining which the signal is if the two differ by only a single 
stroke. Moreover, if there are several gongs located at 
different points, more than one of them is likely to be 
heard by each teacher and the strokes will merge one into 
another. 

To obviate the danger from failure of the signalling 
apparatus to work, the regular signals may be supple- 
mented by a " still alarm," in which monitors pass quickly 
from room to room, displaying some form of signal card. 

5. He will post in each room a placard showing 
exactly what is required of teachers and pupils in 
case of drill. 

For example : — 

EMERGENCY DRILL 

Signals : Five strokes of hall gongs, 

Pupils go without wraps and hats. 
Two strokes of hall gongs, 

Pupils go with wraps and hats. 

(Note : Signals are to the teacher and not to the pupils.) 

Order: All pupils in Room I 5 

use stairway and exit £ , 
following pupils of Room 2 5 
and preceding pupils of Room 35 „ , 
and line up in front of 282 Fulton St. 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 175 

(Note: Pupils start from the room in double line and 

maintain this double formation throughout the 

entire drill.) 
(Note : There shall be absolute quiet throughout the entire 

drill.) 
Return : Upon signal, pupils return to the class rooms in 

the reverse order of that in which they went 

out. 

In the conduct of drills the following rules are 
suggested : — 

1. Do not have drills in unfit weather. Especially 
do not drill pupils in immediate exit except when it 
is warm enough to make it safe for their going out 
without hats and wraps. 

2. Test signalling apparatus frequently. 

3. Have drills under varying conditions : — 

(a) At various hours during the regular class 

work. 

(b) During an assembly. 

(c) During a recess. 

4. Occasionally block off a stairway, hallway, or 
exit, or imagine them blocked off, so that safe exit 
might be made were such difficulties real. 

Certain general precautions should be taken : — 
1. Train the janitor not to permit the accumula- 



176 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

tion of rubbish or waste, and assign him specific 
duties in case of drill, such as promptly fastening 
open the various doors and stationing himself at a 
certain position or in charge of a certain territory. 

2. Confer with the fire and police authorities. 
They will usually exhibit genuine interest in school 
drills and often make valuable suggestions. 

3. Train teachers to keep themselves under good 
control during a drill. Discuss frankly with them 
the actual chances of danger. 1 If the building is a 
modern, fireproof structure, point out how difficult 
it would be to organize a fire in it that would burn 
up the pupils, showing that the sole danger is from 
panic. If the building has certain defects of struc- 
ture from the fire-risk side, explain the conditions 
and the means of minimizing the dangers. 

4. Assure teachers that during a drill they are 
authorized to exercise military law if necessary. 
If a pupil should call out "Fire," or make similar 
outcry, he should be dealt with summarily. Cor- 
poral punishment, however unjustifiable at any other 

1 Note the language of the Indianapolis rule: "The principals 
shall give such instruction to assistants as will prepare them to act 
prudently and promptly in case of an alarm of fire. . . ." — Art. 
XIV, Sec. 3. 



THE PUPILS' PHYSICAL WELFARE 177 

time, will be condoned, and in fact applauded, by 
public sentiment and school authorities, when it 
is thus employed to prevent serious panic among 
little children. 

5. Have teachers instruct pupils in advance ex- 
plicitly as to their duties in case of drill. Warn 
them that the signals are for the teacher and not 
for them, and that they are to make no move until 
ordered to by the teacher. It is probably best to 
direct pupils to keep one hand on hand rails while 
going downstairs. 

A single exit from each room is better than more than 
one. In case of emergency, the teacher can quickly gain 
this single exit, command it, and from this vantage point 
control her class and forestall panic. 

6. Aim, first, for good order and freedom from 
panic; only after these are secure put emphasis 
upon the element of speed. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC 
PROGRESS 

The responsibility of the principal for the scho- 
lastic advancement of his pupils presents special 
problems in organization and supervision which are 
considered in this order : (i) the admission of pupils, 
(2) the grading of pupils, (3) the departmental plan, 
(4) the rating of pupils, (5) the promotion of pupils, 
(6) the class-room work, (7) examinations. 

1. The Admission of Pupils 

In admitting a new pupil the principal must assign 
him to such a grade in the school as shall give the 
pupil a fair balance between his capacity to work and 
the necessity of his working. If he presents a card 
of transfer from some other school within the same 
system, professional etiquette, if not a specific rule 
of the department, demands that he shall be placed 
in the same grade as he was in the former school. 
If he comes from another system, and presents a 
certificate of discharge indicating his grade, the 
principal has to take into consideration the difference 

178 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 179 

in the curricula of the two systems. In this case 
and in the case of the pupil who has no documentary 
evidence of his previous school record, the principal 
must be guided by the conditions. By a simple oral 
or written test he may ascertain approximately both 
the pupil's accumulated stock of knowledge and his 
ability to take up new work. If he is farther ad- 
vanced in some subjects than in others, he may 
properly be assigned to such a grade as shall credit 
him with the advanced knowledge and yet make 
him put forth considerable effort in the others. 
Assignment should be on trial, and should be clearly 
so stated. It is better, as a rule, to put the pupil 
in the higher of two possible grades with the under- 
standing that he will have a certain number of days 
in which to prove his ability to stay there, than to 
put him in the lower grade on the assumption that 
he needs the " foundation " work. When he is 
given such a trial, he should understand that no 
disgrace is to attach to his reduction in grade if 
later it is found that he has been graded too high. 

2. The Grading of Pupils 

The proper grading of pupils is one of the unsolved 
pedagogic problems of the day. The " district 



180 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

school" represents the extreme type of individual 
instruction, each pupil practically in a grade by 
himself. The large city school' with four or five 
classes — two hundred or more pupils — in a single 
grade, represents the extreme type of mass instruc- 
tion. How, in a large school, with large classes 
inevitable, shall the happy mean be reached between 
individual and mass teaching ? The principal should 
understand the broad features of the problem, 
especially the fact that the size of classes and the 
quality of the teaching is at root a financial matter, 
and should exercise his influence in urging the pub- 
lic to more liberal expenditure. But the practical 
administrative problem before the principal is how 
he shall get the most effective teaching for the 
individual through the mass, under the actual condi- 
tions and with limited equipment. With a hundred 
or more pupils gathered into the same grade in two 
or more classes and under two or more teachers, 
how much sacrifice of the bright pupils to the dull 
is involved? With a teacher necessarily regulating 
her work with the so-called " average" pupil in 
mind, both bright and dull pupils lose; the bright 
pupil loses ambition and interest through waiting 
for the dull to " catch up," and the dull pupil be- 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 181 

comes discouraged through the comparison that is 
ever in evidence between him and the bright mem- 
bers of his class. But shall we deprive the dull pupil 
of the stimulus of the brighter minds by keeping 
him always in association with pupils of equal 
dullness? There is, too, a limit to the reduction in 
size of classes, fixed by pedagogic considerations. 
If twenty-four pupils in a class is twice as good a 
condition as forty-eight pupils in the class, it does not 
follow that twelve pupils would be again twice as 
favorable. The value of society membership, of 
development along lines of social efficiency, of the 
friction of mind on mind that produces polish, is 
not to be underestimated. 

The general problem of gradation has been at- 
tacked by many educators with various schemes and 
with varying results. 

By the Cambridge plan, pupils can finish a course 
normally of 2 x years in either 2 x, 2 x— 1, or 2X-2 
years, through the opportunity for transfer at the end 
of x years : — 



Course A, extending over 2x years 

-^ - = 2 x years 

x years + x years 

Transfer 

point 



182 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

Course B, extending over 2X — 2 years 

2 1 = 2 x — 2 years 

x — 1 years + # — 1 years 

Transfer 

point 

Course on A, transferring to B 

x years + x— 1 years 
j 1 2 x — i years 

Transfer 
point 

Course on B, transferring to A 

x — 1 years + # years 

J - J =2x—i years 

Transfer 

point 

The Elizabeth plan of Superintendent Shearer's 
provides for twenty-five or thirty grades, with con- 
tinual readjustment of pupils, grouping according 
to essentials and individual ability, the location and 
removal of certain, definite " danger-points," and 
other features designed to push pupils rapidly from 
entrance to exit of the elementary school. 

According to. the idealized " Pueblo " plan of Dr. 
Search's, each student is the unit, working by and 
for himself, with long study periods and ample 
facilities. 

The a Batavia" system, designed by Superintendent 
Kennedy, provides for large classes of pupils, each 
class in a single room with two teachers, who receive 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 183 

class instruction and special drill on weak spots by 
groups. 

The New York method allows the formation in 
each school of three types of specially graded classes, 
known as C, D, and E classes : " C " for non-English- 
speaking pupils who are given special drill in English 
and removed to a regular grade as soon as possible ; 
"D" for the instruction in the " essential" subjects 
of pupils who are soon to be fourteen years old 
(the legal minimum age in New York State at which 
a pupil may leave school for work) and who would 
not reach the legal requirements as to scholarship 
were they to remain in the regular grades; "E" for 
pupils above the normal age of their respective grades 
who are given special instruction to enable them to 
"skip" certain grades. 

Under ordinary circumstances, in any liberal 
system, the principal may relieve exceptional condi- 
tions by modifications of some of these various plans, 
or by the expedient of group teaching, forming grades 
within grades. 

3. The Departmental Plan 

One of the present-day features in organization 
closely related to the matter of grading, is the "de- 



1 84 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

partmentai" system, which introduces into the higher 
grades of the elementary school the method of the 
secondary schools, whereby each teacher carries 
one or two subjects through successive grades, in- 
stead of teaching all the subjects of one grade. 

The chief arguments advanced in favor of the 
departmental plan are : — 

(a) On behalf of the teacher. 

i. The teacher cannot master all subjects. 

This would seem to be something of a reflection upon 
the ability of the teacher. Is it not a little absurd to talk 
of " specialists " in the subjects of the elementary school 
curriculum, especially where the more "special" subjects 
of music, drawing, etc., are usually supervised, if not 
taught, by trained artists? A specialist of arithmetic? 
A specialist in spelling ? In secondary and college educa- 
tion the student chooses his work from among a host of 
optional studies, and it would be unreasonable, of course, 
to expect any one teacher to carry, for instance, Latin, 
German, calculus, biology, rhetoric, and economics; but 
in the elementary school the pupil takes the "whole dose, " 
and is it unreasonable to expect the teacher to do the 
same? 

2. The teacher's preparation is thorough and 
easier. 

Being concerned with but one subject, her mind can 
readily prepare at different levels along the same line of 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 185 

thought; and the subject being that in which, presum- 
ably, she is most interested, intensive study will result. 

3. High scholarship in the teacher is encouraged. 

4. Teachers may become advanced specialists. 

This opens the way for the promotion of elementary 
school teachers into the high schools, and thus gives them 
added stimulus and incentive to enthusiastic work, which 
reacts in its benefit to the pupils. 

(b) On behalf of the pupils. 

5. The teachers must prepare. 

As each set of pupils meets each teacher but once in 
the day, the teacher cannot afford to leave a single period 
unprepared. By the old plan, teaching the same class all 
day, she may slight one or two lessons without its being 
noticed by the pupils. 

6. The teaching is more inspiring. 

The teacher is interested in her "specialty" and is 
herself inspired by her subject and by the change of classes. 

7. The teaching is more effective. 

The teacher can follow up the individual pupil through 
his successive difficulties in the subject she teaches. 

8. Pupils come in contact with many minds. 

They are relieved from the tedium of listening to one 
voice for five or six hours daily and of reacting constantly 
toward the same personality. 



186 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

9. The transition from the elementary to the high 
school is easier. 

And yet the transition from single- class instruction to 
departmental has to be made at some time. Shall it be 
made at the end of the sixth school year, when it involves 
a much larger number of pupils, or at the end of the eighth 
year? 

(c) On behalf of the administration. 

10. The work of the school may be planned more 
systematically and completely, and better unified. 

The work in each subject is better unified when the 
same teacher carries out the plan for merging each term's 
work into the next, than when the transition from term 
to term is made by several teachers. 

n. There is a saving of time and effort. 

A maximal amount of energy will be secured in the 
service of any group of teachers when they are working in 
directions most agreeable to them. 

12. Rooms may be equipped for each subject. 

This is perhaps the most substantial gain made under 
this plan. All the teaching of history can be done in a 
single room which is fitted with charts, maps, historical 
library, etc., and a single collection of this material suffices 
for several classes. Similarly, a room for geography may 
have its equipment of globes, atlases, gazetteers, molding 
boards, stereoscopes, and views, etc. ; the room for draw- 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 187 

ing, its models, casts, artist's materials; the room for 
mathematics, its weights and measures, charts, models, 
statistical reference-books; and so on through all the 
subjects of the curriculum. 

Against the plan it may be said : — 

(a) On behalf of the teachers. 

1. It tends to narrow the teachers. 

A teacher devoting herself day-in and day-out to a 
single subject is prone sooner or later to run in the single 
groove and to lose that interest in the varied things of life 
which make for general culture. Proper supervision by 
the principal ought, however, to prevent such a condition. 

(b) On behalf of the pupils. 

2. The subjects are taught instead of the pupils. 

There is danger that the child is lost sight of, and the 
subject becomes the center of the teacher's interest. She 
becomes the teacher of "arithmetic" instead of the teacher 
of the "Seven A Boys." 

3. The personal care of pupils is lessened. 

Each teacher has four or five times as many pupils as 
she would have under the other plan. She is thus "spread 
out thin" over the classes, and her knowledge of and atten- 
tion to individual pupils and their needs can be but a 
fourth or fifth of what it otherwise would be. Again, as 
a result of the division of responsibility, there is danger that 
each teacher may take the view that she must not show 



188 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

special interest in a pupil, either because the other teach- 
ers might resent it, or on the assumption that some other 
teacher probably is taking the necessary interest. 

4. The demands of specialists are excessive. 

Each teacher, held strictly responsible for results in a 
given subject, pushes her pupils to the utmost. Whatever 
they may do in their other studies, they must do her 
work. So, with all the teachers urging in this way, the 
demand upon the time and energy of the pupils amounts 
to an overpowering total. This danger should be avoided 
by careful supervision, whereby the principal has frequent 
conferences with the teachers, issues definite directions 
limiting the amount of work assignable, and assures him- 
self that his directions are followed. 

5. The studying is done largely outside the class. 

Each teacher jealously guards all the time assigned to 
her subject from encroachment for purposes of study. 
This, again, is a matter for intelligent supervision. 

(c) On behalf of the administration. 

6. The making of the time schedule is difficult 
and unsatisfactory. 

It is difficult because of the many factors involved, and it 
requires from the most expert of principals the expendi- 
ture of a tremendous amount of energy. 

It is unsatisfactory, after it is made, because the factors 
of fatigue have to be almost entirely neglected. If the 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 189 

same teacher has to conduct classes in mathematics 
throughout a school day, half of the classes are bound to 
be pushed to hard exertion at a time when the natural 
" curve of vitality" is at or near a minimum. 

7. Disorder of pupils is encouraged. 

Periodic passing of pupils from room to room, if the 
pupils change rooms, or the leaving of pupils unsupervised, 
if it is the teachers who change, tends to confusion, if not 
to actual disorder. But this, too, is a matter for super- 
vision and regulation. The relaxation gained by pupils 
by a few minutes' change of position ought to react 
favorably upon their conduct during the succeeding 
period. 

8. Correlation is secured with difficulty, if at all. 

This is an offset to advantage 10. Strong coordination 
of work from grade to grade is gained at the expense of 
proper correlation. 

9. It is difficult to secure competent substitutes. 

Almost any substitute can go into a class and "liold 
it" after a fashion for a day or two. The same person 
would have much greater difficulty in attempting to carry 
the work of a subject in several classes. Regular teachers 
of lower grades can be understudied for such emergencies. 

The superintendent of one of the largest cities in the 
United States abandoned the departmental plan on account 
of this single disadvantage, which in that city proved 
serious. 



190 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

10. The family spirit of the school is weakened. 

After all, the pupils in the elementary school are chil- 
dren, and though a large percentage of those in the last 
two years are adolescent, they still need the guiding hand 
and personal touch of a friendly teacher who shall be all- 
in-all to them — who shall be as the law assumes, in loco 
parentis. 

ii. Administrative energy expended is out of 
proportion to the results gained. 

A large amount of energy is given out by principal and 
teachers in making the plan "work." More thought in 
the construction of the programme and oversight in ad- 
ministering it, more frequent conferences with teachers, 
more detailed supervision of pupils' conduct, more prob- 
lems of adjustment — all these are factors in the amount 
of time and energy expended by the principal. If the 
results gained are commensurate, then of course their 
cost is not to be considered, and will not be by the con- 
scientious principal ; but if they are not, then the school 
will profit more by the principal's doing of other things. 

In working on the departmental plan, 1 compliance 
with the following principles will probably increase 
its effectiveness : — 

1 An extended discussion of this subject, favorable to the plan, 
is given in Van Evrie Kilpatrick, "Departmental Teaching in Ele- 
mentary Schools," New York, 1908. 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 191 

1 . Each teacher must have more than one subject. 
This will help to answer criticisms 1, 2, 4, and 5. 

2. The teachers must be in harmony with one 
another and fairly well satisfied with their subjects. 

If there are discordant elements among the teachers, it 
would be well to postpone the plan until the discordant 
ones can be eliminated. So far as it is possible, each 
teacher should have subjects of her own choice, subjects 
in which she is especially interested and subjects which 
she can teach well. 

3. The point must be settled as to whether the 
pupils change rooms or the teachers change. 

If the former, the advantage of specially equipped rooms 
is gained ; if the latter, the advantage of less confusion in 
the corridors. Under ordinary conditions, the former 
outweighs the latter. 

4. Each class should have a "class teacher" 
for general guidance. 

This teacher should be with the pupils at the opening 
and at the closing periods and for some other considerable 
length of time ; for her to have her own class during the 
entire afternoon session seems advisable. This teacher 
should be responsible for the records of the class, and 
through her efforts objections 3 and 10, and perhaps 4 
and 5, should be met. 



192 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

5. It would seem best to omit the highest grade 
from the departmental plan. 

This gives an opportunity for the "graduating" teachers 
to correlate and round off the work of the various teachers 
in the grades below, and to give a finishing touch of per- 
sonal influence to the pupils, providing, of course, that 
these teachers are expertly qualified for this special work. 

4. The Rating of Pupils 

However he may regard the subject of marks, 
estimates, and ratings, in its academic aspects, the 
principal faces the practical fact that in every system 
of schools some uniform provision is made for the 
periodic ratings of pupils and reporting of those rat- 
ings to parents. In some cities ratings are required 
in extended detail, a percentage mark being given 
in each of many subjects of the curriculum; in 
others, a mere statement as to whether the pupil's 
work has been satisfactory or not is all that is required. 
The tendency seems to be away from arithmetical 
ratings, and toward a few arbitrary characters which 
represent various degrees of proficiency, and away 
from a detailed statement accounting for every 
subject studied, and toward a general statement 
as to the character of the pupil's work as a whole. 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 193 

In some cases the pupil's effort is rated distinctively 
from his proficiency, and in nearly all systems the 
pupil's deportment is given a separate rating. 

Whatever the prescribed system under which the 
principal is working, there are a few general con- 
siderations which will influence him in carrying out 
its provisions. 

On the mechanical side, the principal must secure 
prompt and accurate records as made by the teachers. 
If the records are due at a certain stated time of the 
week or month, it is the duty of the principal to see 
that they are recorded by that time. It is his duty 
to see that teachers and pupils clearly understand 
the meaning and significance of the rating-marks 
employed. 

"Report cards" are usually sent to the parents 
periodically 1 for them to sign and return to the 
school. When this is the case, it is to be remembered 
that the card is but a transcript, and is not the origi- 
nal record; therefore, the record by the teacher 
must be made first and the report card written 
afterward. 

*In most cities the same card is used throughout the term; but 
in Richmond, for instance, a new record sheet is issued every four 
weeks. 



194 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

The principal may often enhance the importance 
of the ratings in the minds of the pupils by distrib- 
uting the "cards" himself. A judicious word of 
praise to the praiseworthy, and a word of comment 
quietly spoken to the unsatisfactory, have their 
effect. If properly handled in this way, the report 
card is given a dignity and importance that are 
valuable ; on the other hand, any system of distribu- 
tion by the principal should be so flexible as to take 
into account conditions local to any class, or tem- 
porary conditions applicable to all classes, which 
may make it advisable that the distribution should 
be made by the teachers. 

Occasionally there is difficulty in securing the 
return of report cards with the parent's signature. 
If, as is usually the case, this is the fault of the pupil, 
the teacher must follow up the individual case so 
closely as to prevent tardy return of the cards be- 
coming a habit. But if the fault is the parent's, 
it must be remembered that the school cannot compel 
the parent to sign his name. The safest attitude to 
take is that the card is issued as a courtesy, as a 
transcript of the record and not as the record itself, 
on the assumption that the parent is interested in the 
school progress of his child; consequently, if the 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 195 

parent refuses to sign the card, as a few do on the 
ground that the rating is unfair and with the curious 
theory that their refusal may in some way alter its 
record, the school may accept it as meaning that the 
parent does not appreciate the courtesy and that 
no further cards need be issued to his child. 

As to the ratings themselves, the principal must 
secure judicious marking by the teachers. Teachers 
must keep in mind that ratings usually should not 
be based upon written memoranda alone, certainly 
not upon written "tests" alone; that a brief absence 
need not necessarily interfere seriously with a pupil's 
proficiency and progress; that relative excellence 
of work is what is to be recorded and not an absolute 
condition measured against perfection; and that 
under all ordinary conditions, if a class as a whole 
does not do satisfactory work, it is the teacher's 
fault. The principal will have to inspect ratings 
periodically to correct lapses along these lines. 
Particularly must he prevent the common condition 
where the pupils suffer an unjustifiable drop in their 
ratings at the beginning of each new term : the pupil 
is promoted with a maximum rating, and then his 
new teacher, in order to impress him with the fact 
that now that he is in her class he must work, gives 



iq6 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

him a low rating the first month, whereas he has 
actually worked more faithfully and effectively than 
in the previous month. Where the system provides 
a separate mark for effort and proficiency, the princi- 
pal must look out for such cases as a pupil with 
excellent effort and very poor results, or a pupil with 
unsatisfactory effort and excellent results. In either 
case it would seem that the pupil is misgraded, too 
high in the former case and too low in the latter. 

5. The Promotion of Pupils 

Certain uniform regulations regarding the promo- 
tion of pupils are in force in any system of schools. 
Promotions may be made regularly at the end of a 
"term" varying in length in different cities ; perhaps 
the most general practice provides for two terms in 
each year. There are arguments for and against a 
short term, but as the principal has little to do with 
fixing the period, they are not considered here. The 
method of determining promotions is in some systems 
fixed even to details, but usually there is considerable 
latitude allowed the principals and teachers. 

A few suggestions are offered on the general 
subject : — 

1. Promotions should not be based solely upon 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 197 

final examinations or tests, either written or oral. 
Many a hard-working, conscientious pupil of ner- 
vous temperament is less able to pass successfully 
a written examination than some less deserving, 
happy-go-lucky, careless classmate. 

2. The " educational value" of the various sub- 
jects of the curriculum should be taken into account 
and the pupil's work in each given proportionate 
credit. An arithmetical average of a pupil's results in 
English, mathematics, history, geography, drawing, 
and music, for instance, would not fairly represent 
his all-around ability, for a high music rating due 
to native talent in that particular direction might 
more than offset a low rating in English, a subject 
which includes the various subtopics of composi- 
tion, reading, memorizing, spelling, and grammar. 

3. Probably the best plan for promotion is to 
forward all pupils whom the teacher regards as 
unquestionably worthy of promotion, and to give 
a written examination to settle the cases regarding 
which the teacher is in doubt. Even if the practice 
is to promote upon the teacher's estimate alone, 
the pupil should have the right of appeal and the 
right to demand a formal test of his fitness. It is, 
therefore, wise for the principal to anticipate such 



198 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

appeals by giving a formal examination to all pupils 
regarded by the teachers as deficient. The record 
of such examinations with the results, together with 
the pupils' answer papers, should, of course, be pre- 
served, so that when an appeal is made, the prin- 
cipal is armed with documentary evidence. 

4. A pupil should be promoted: (a) when he 
has satisfactorily completed the work of his grade; 
(b) when he is prepared to do the work of the suc- 
ceeding grade. A pupil may not have complied 
with (a) on account of absence or other circum- 
stances, and yet comply with (b). 

Whether misconduct should operate to prevent 
the promotion of a pupil is perhaps a debatable 
question. It is safe to say that it should not, but 
that it does; that is, as a matter of record a pupil 
who has misbehaved and nevertheless has been profi- 
cient in his school work should not be kept back by 
his misbehavior; and yet as a matter of fact his 
misbehavior if at all serious will operate to prevent 
his reaching satisfactory proficiency. 1 

1 Cincinnati recognizes conduct as a factor: "A satisfactory 
standing in daily work, with good deportment, shall be accepted as 
evidence of the ability of pupils to do successfully the work of the 
next higher grade." — Rules, Reg. 34, Sec. 1. 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 199 

It is also a question as to whether a pupil should 
ever be promoted on " length of service"; shall a 
pupil who has already spent two half-year terms in a 
grade without getting satisfactory results be held back 
to attempt the work of that grade for a third term ? 
The answer undoubtedly is that the pupil should be 
placed in that grade where he will receive the maxi- 
mal amount of educative experience. 1 If he has 
spent two terms in a grade where learning to read 
is the chief business, probably he should stay the 
third term in order to attend to that business. If 
he has spent two terms in one grade, and has 
accomplished satisfactory results in some sub- 
jects and has fallen woefully behind in others, he 
probably should go ahead. If he is an all-around 
dull pupil who has already lost interest in the subject- 
matter of the grade and who has gotten from that 
grade and from that teacher all that he ever can get, 

1 Cf. Superintendent Brumbaugh: "The pupil in an elementary 
school should not remain in a grade beyond the time indicated save 
only for considerations of ill health or inability to pursue profitably 
more advanced work." — p. 16. "The basis of promotion is thus 
seen to be not a quantitative mastery of subject-matter as found in 
the course of instruction, but a qualitative result in terms of mental 
power acquired. The basis is not objective, but subjective." — p. 12. 
Annual Report, Philadelphia, 1906. 



200 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

he probably should be promoted to a new field; 
he may be passed along in this way without serious 
injury until he reaches the legal age for leaving for 
work, though a diploma or certificate of graduation 
ought not to be given him on any such basis of con- 
tinued promotions. Throughout, the word probably 
has been used advisedly ; the individual case should 
be considered every time; the formulation of any 
inflexible rule that no pupil should remain in a grade 
three terms, or the contrary rule that no pupil should 
be promoted who has not rigidly qualified for pro- 
motion, would react unfavorably upon the life of 
the school, and should be avoided. A pupil who is 
much above the average age of his class and yet has 
not earned promotion, may properly be put forward 
on the ground that a large factor in his failure is his 
sensitiveness to the fact that he is out of his social 
set, a sensitiveness which is natural and more com- 
monly present than many teachers recognize. 

5. It should be possible to promote pupils occa- 
sionally during a term, but under ordinary and 
normal conditions this should be done sparingly. 
It is better to promote a bright pupil at the beginning 
of the term on trial than to keep him in the lower 
grade and then later in the term "jump" him ahead. 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 201 

6. It should be possible to reduce a pupil in grade 
at any time, but this, too, should be a measure 
largely of a disciplinary character (disciplinary in 
the broader sense of the term), to be used sparingly. 
It should be done only (1) after ample evidence, 
written the best, that the pupil's lack of effort justifies 
it, (2) after conference or, at least, attempted con- 
ference with the parent, (3) with the parent's consent, 
or better, at his request. A better plan, usually, 
is to make "trial" promotions at the beginning of 
the term of all doubtful pupils, so that it is clearly 
understood that promotion has not been earned, 
and that, if the pupil's further effort does not justify 
his retention in the advanced grade, he shall be 
replaced in the lower grade without argument. 

7. In promoting pupils, even in a large school, the 
best disposition of each pupil should be made. It 
is often the case that the best interests of a pupil 
demand that, after promotion, he shall be in a certain 
class of his grade; he may have friends who are a 
source of inspiration to him and with whom he should 
be continued ; he may have companions from whom 
it is wise to separate him; he may have a tempera- 
ment that will be better understood by one teacher 
than by another; he may be better off in a mixed 



202 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

class than in a class composed only of his own sex, 
or vice versa; etc. Similarly, if he fails of promo- 
tion, his best interests may demand that he should 
remain with the teacher he has had, or that he be 
transferred to another class and teacher in the grade. 
All of these individual matters should receive atten- 
tion; but in a school of hundreds or thousands 
of pupils this can be done only by careful and 
systematic planning. 

The following plan is suggested : Teachers enter records 
of promotional examinations on sheets arranged thus : — 

EXAMINATION FOR PROMOTION 

Class 190-—. 

Pupils Delinquent in Term's Work 



Name 



Age 



No. 

Terms in 
Grade 



Term 
Rating 



Subjects 



Exam. 
Ave. 



Dispo- 



Each teacher files this record with the principal only after 
personal conference with him ; together they decide, and 
enter the decision in the last column, as to each pupil, 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 203 

whether he shall be promoted regularly, promoted on 
trial, or held back. 

The completion of this record determines the promotion 
figures for each class. Each teacher files two sheets, 
printed, let us say, in black, arranged thus : — 

PROMOTED 
Boys, Girls, from Room 



No. 



Name According to Term 



Rank 



Ave. 



No. 



Name According to Term 



Rank 



Ave. 



and the second the same arrangement but headed 
LEFT BACK 

If there is a particular disposition which a teacher 
thinks should be made of a pupil, such as not pro- 
moting him to a mixed class or keeping him in her 
own class instead of leaving him back with another 
teacher, she notes her suggestion opposite the name on 
the Black Sheet. 

From the Black Sheets, the principal makes entries in 
columns 3, 4, 5, 8, 11, and 14, in the following — 



204 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

RECORD SHEET 

190.-. 



w w 2 

H Qi H 

3 R s 

u w o 



Promoted 



Boys 



Girls 



Left Back 



Boys 



Girls 



Register 
after Promotion 



Boys 



18 



Girls 



By adding all the Left Backs in all the classes of a given 
grade to all the promotions from all the classes of the grade 
below, he obtains the total new register for the grade. He 
apportions this equally among the classes of the grade and 
thus gets entries for columns 17 and 20. He then appor- 
tions the boys in 5 to the different rooms to which it is 
possible to send them and makes entries for 6 and 7 ; the 
girls in 8 similarly and enters 9 and 10, etc., completing 
the Record Sheet, 

He next checks the names on the Black Sheets from the 
figures on the Record Sheet, indicating the rooms that they 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 205 

are to be sent to, and returns the Black Sheets to the 
teachers together with a set of, say, Red Sheets, arranged 
thus : — 

PROMOTED 





_Boys, Girls, from 


Room to Room 


No. 


Names, Alphabetically 


Born 


Residence 


Parent's Name 





















































and the same, headed 

LEFT BACK 

There will be one sheet for each different transfer of 
pupils, making, in practice, from two to perhaps eight 
sheets for each set. The teacher keeps the Black Sheets 
and files the Red Sheets. The principal reassembles the 
Red Sheets, pasting all those of the same "To Room" 
together, and sends these, which show the rolls of the new 
classes, to the respective teachers. At promotion time 
each teacher promotes from her Black Sheets and receives 
and checks up her promotions from her Red Sheets. 

6. The Class-room Work 

In the following discussion of the business of 
the teacher and her class, no attempt is made to 



206 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

exhaust the subject, for that would be impossible; 
or to theorize on the subject, for that would be 
unprofitable; or to dogmatize on the subject, for 
that would be idle : the aim is merely to summarize, 
with a few rather random suggestions, the class-room 
work as seen from the principal's office. 

In these days of professional training it might be 
thought that a licensed teacher, once secured and 
placed in charge of a class, would be preordained to 
certain success. As a matter of fact, not only will 
she need practical guidance along the lines dis- 
cussed in the foregoing chapters, but, constantly 
during the years of her novitiate and occasionally 
throughout her entire career, she will need encour- 
aging reminders as to the fundamental principles of 
class-room management. Presumably she is trained 
in pedagogy, but it is the exceptional teacher who 
can immediately carry that training intelligently 
into the daily detail of the practical work with a 
class, unaided and uninspired. Presumably she 
has studied the history of education, familiarized 
herself with the significant world movements, and 
learned the secrets of the great masters of the art of 
teaching; presumably she has vanquished all the 
perplexities of psychology and laid bare the secret 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 207 

processes of the human mind; presumably she has 
educed and induced and deduced all the known 
methods of teaching. But fortunate indeed is the 
teacher who, face to face with a concrete class of 
fifty, can constrict world movements into the limits 
of her room, recall even the names of the master 
pedagogues, discover any psychologic principles per- 
meating her environment, or put method into the 
prevailing madness. In time, with more or less aid, 
she will reduce chaos to order and reach the point 
where her professional progress really begins. It is 
at this point that the principal may lead the teacher 
to review the literature she studied while in training, 
but which she is now prepared to appreciate with an 
" apperceptive basis" that was wholly lacking in 
the earlier days. She is prepared to perceive more 
clearly the full significance of education and the pur- 
pose of the public school, to understand aright the 
needs of pupils and the function of the teacher, and 
to apply her native ingenuity to her daily routine 
with increasing skill. 

It is a chief duty of the principal to lead the teacher, 
in the performance of her detailed work in the class 
room, away from obsolete and inadequate stand- 
ards toward rational thinking and high ideals. 



208 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

She must get away from any notion that education 
is merely a pouring-in and pumping-out process, 
or that the recitation, important as it is, is the chief 
aim or sole activity of the school. 

Particularly must the teacher appreciate the ne- 
cessity for eliminating waste in her administration of 
the class room. 1 For instance: " Violations of the 
laws of mental development and crude class adminis- 
tration lead to losses of time and effort which would 
not be tolerated in a properly managed business — 
losses resulting from : poor grading ; poor grouping ; 
awkward distribution of material; teaching form 
divorced from thought; teaching unrelated ideas; 
waiting for slow pupils; combating wrong habits 
resulting from poor initial teaching. These and 
other sources of subtle waste exhaust the energy 
of the average teacher and leave her overwhelmed, 
discouraged, while twice the work required of the 
grade is done with ease and pleasure by the teacher 
who can either instinctively or reflectively apply 
to every phase of her problem the principle of 
economy." 2 

1 See Bagley, "Classroom Management," Part I, with which every 
teacher should be familiar. 

2 Miss Margaret McCloskey, General Supervisor, Newark, in 
Fiftieth Annual Report of the Board of Education, p. 204. 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 209 

A fruitful source of waste is " inattention." In- 
attention, when of a single pupil or two, during a 
development lesson, for instance, cannot be regarded 
as a serious matter; but when it shows signs of 
becoming general, the teacher should rapidly apply 
the following criteria : — 

1. Note the ventilation: if improper, 1 regulate it; 
if apparently satisfactory, then, 

2. Note the temperature: if abnormal, rectify it; 
if normal, then, 

3. Note whether the pupils are fatigued: if they 
have been working too intensively or too continuously 
along one line and consequently are physically tired, 
change the subject; if not, then, 

4. Note whether the pupils are wearied: if the 
teaching method has been dull and uninteresting 
and the pupils consequently are mentally tired, 
change the method, or give up the lesson until a 
better method can be prepared, and in the meantime 
change to an occupation that will command attention. 

The daily schedule of any class is an alternation 
of Work and Relaxation. In securing proper alterna- 

1 "When carbonic acid gas is present in a schoolroom to the 
extent of six parts to ten thousand of pure air, organic matter enough 
to poison the air is present. The effect on the children is drowsiness, 
stupidity, and fatigue." — Rowe, op. tit., p. 151. 
p 



2io THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

tion, it may be remembered, (i) that relaxation 
may take the form of either rest or recreation; 
(2) that gymnastics are not essentially relaxing, 
but, measured by the amount of normal fatigue 
produced, rank with the formal studies such as 
arithmetic and grammar; (3) that five two-minute 
periods of setting-up exercises are more valuable as 
relaxation than a ten-minute period of physical 
culture; and (4) that rest has been defined as a 
change of occupation, so that there is a certain degree 
of relaxation resulting from the proper alternation 
of the different phases of work. 

The very atmosphere of the class room should be 
one of Work. We need not elaborate nor discuss 
the classifications of the different phases of work 
made by the writers on method, as, for instance, 
the distinctions, according to Dr. Bagley, between 
imitation and object teaching, between instruction 
and development, between intellectual and emotional 
transmission. It is assumed that " successful teach- 
ing is conditioned in no small degree upon an ade- 
quate understanding of the structure and functions 
of typical lessons," 1 and the principal must encourage 
teachers to gain this understanding. 

bagley, "Educative Process," p. 284. 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 211 

Sufficient for our purpose is it if we think of the 
work of the pupils as that which is Independent and 
that which is Dependent. 

"The school is not so much an agency whose function 
it is to feed the mind as it is an agency whose function it is 
to create an appetite to know. At the outset the pupil 
is almost entirely dependent upon the guidance of the 
teacher. At the end the pupil should be practically inde- 
pendent of the teacher's guidance. This transition is 
slow. But it must be constantly planned for and as con- 
stantly realized. The supplanting of objective guidance 
by subjective guidance is the best evidence of healthy 
growth in the spiritual unfolding of the child. This may 
be converted into the maxim : the business of the teacher 
is to make herself increasingly unnecessary to the pupil. 
The teacher's skill and efficiency alike are conditioned in 
no small degree by this maxim." * 

It is true that the pupil can be trained to inde- 
pendence only through a long apprenticeship of 
dependence upon his teachers and his fellow-pupils, 
yet it is a too common fault for teachers to keep 
pupils dependent too much and too long. Hence 
it is a prime duty of the principal constantly to cor- 

1 Superintendent M. G. Brumbaugh, in Annual Report, Phila- 
delphia, 1906, p. 10. 



212 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

rect this tendency, which shows itself in many ways, 
among them the following : — 

i. Pupils are not worked hard enough. 

". . . it may suffice to say here that if the pupil does 
not sometimes find his school work disagreeable, then 
something is radically wrong either with the pupil or with 
the school or with both." 1 

2. A false conception of "order." 

"It is quite possible for a school to be too quiet. All 
unnecessary quietness that is attained through positive 
pain of the pupils is excessive. . . . But a sharp dis- 
tinction is to be made between the necessary noise of ear- 
nest industry and the wilful confusion resulting from 
unrestrained mischief." 2 

3. Teachers talk too much ; they occupy the center 
of the stage when many times they should be in the 
audience or at most in the prompter's box. 

" It must be remembered that the two elements in all 
education are impression and expression, and that while 
the former is necessary as furnishing a fund of material, 
the latter is that upon which growth in power, facility, 
and adaptation depends.' 



J5 3 



^agley, "Educative Process," p. 331. 
2 Larkin Dunton, Education, Feb., 1892, p. 324. 
3 Superintendent Clarence F. Carroll, in Annual Report for 1903- 
1904, Rochester, New York. 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 213 

4. Pupils are not allowed sufficient time for 
thought and expression, but 'are ruthlessly inter- 
rupted by the teacher and other pupils. " The 
governing principle of the recitation should be, not 
competition, but cooperation." 1 

The promiscuous raising of hands by pupils anxious to 
help the one reciting is a prevalent habit which is usually 
unnecessary, disconcerting, discourteous, and altogether 
unjustifiable, and which, once in vogue, will require per- 
sistent attention before it is effectively repressed. 

There are times, of course, during a recitation when the 
raising of hands may legitimately and profitably be called 
for or permitted, but it requires intelligent supervision. 

But it must also be remembered "that the interruption 
of a pupil's train of thought is just as harmful when 
made by a teacher as when made by another pupil." 2 

5. The study period is neglected. Pupils' study, 
either in school or at home, may be for two purposes : 
(a) preparatory, to gather material for a subsequent 
lesson; and (b) supplementary, dealing with the 
results of a previous lesson. In either case, this 
study should be independent of the teacher or other 
helper, and yet the pupil can reach complete inde- 

1 Samuel T. Dutton, " Social Phases of Education in the School 
and the Home," New York, 1900, p. 24. 

2 Larkin Dunton Education, Feb., 1892, p. 324. 



214 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

pendence only through the directive guidance of the 
skillful teacher who gradually and adroitly withdraws 
her support. 

6. Lessons are unwisely assigned. If too much 
or too difficult, a premium is put upon the pupil's 
getting help which weakens rather than strengthens 
him ; if too little or too easy, the pupil is left untrained 
in self -effort. The balance is struck when the work 
assigned is possible of accomplishment in the time 
at hand by the pupil unaided, yet only by the output 
of deliberate and honest effort. 

7. Motives are neglected. Pupils are set at work 
which they can regard only as a task because they 
see no benefit, immediate or future, which could 
possibly accrue from its performance. 

8. Text-books are misused. Either they become 
a form of fetish, encouraging pupils in their natural 
helplessness, or they are neglected and the pupils 
deprived of their rational aid. 

7. Examinations 

The words test and examination are used somewhat 
loosely in pedagogic discussion. In one sense, a 
test is but an abbreviated examination, a word in- 
troduced in late years as a refined and soothing sub- 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 215 

stitute for the harsh-sounding and much-condemned 
examination. In another sense, the test is the 
broader term, comprising examination and all other 
forms of testing, even including the daily recitation. 
Yet another use is to apply test to oral review and 
examination to written review. 

"The ordinary examination is a test of success, usually 
of a mechanical sort." — Dr. White. 1 

"An examination is a partial test of both knowledge and 
power." — Superintendent Gilbert. 2 

"Some years ago oral tests were largely discarded for 
written examinations." — Dr. Dutton. 3 

"The efficiency of instruction may be tested by a care- 
ful application of the method of formal examinations." — 
Dr. Bagley. 4 

In what follows, the words test and examination 
will be used synonymously to include all kinds, oral 
or written, of formal investigation into the ability of 
pupils. 

However wholesome we may regard the reaction 
of recent years against the "examination," we must 
recognize that, as the "capstone of the review 

Emerson E. White, "School Management," New York, 1893, 
p. 158. 2 Op. tit., p. 67. 

3 "School Management," p. 177. 

4 "Classroom Management," p. 249. 



216 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

process," it must be retained. Manifestly, how- 
ever, certain principles must govern its use : — 

i. Tests must be regarded as a means to an end, 
and not be mistaken for the end itself. "A school 
examination is a good servant, but a bad master." 1 

2. Teachers and pupils must not work solely or 
even primarily for results on examinations, both 
because of the superficiality of the work thus en- 
couraged and because of the fret and worry that are 
produced in the minds of teacher and pupils. 

3. Every test should be given with some definite 
aim or purpose in view, and this usually should be 
constructive in motive. 

4. As a logical consequence of its purposeful 
character, the results of the test should be analyzed, 
careful generalizations drawn, and these conclusions 
acted upon for the good of the pupils. 

5. There should be a judicious use of both oral 
and written tests. The written is so commonly the 
prevailing form that it is unnecessary here to argue 
for it. The oral test, according to Dr. Dutton, 2 has 
the following advantages over the written test : — 
(1) It gives the teacher power and skill in ques- 

1 J. Baldwin, "The Art of School Management," New York, 
1891, p. 359. 2 " School Management," p. 177. 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 217 

tioning. (2) The teacher discovers which pupils 
have ready command. (3) It relieves the pupils of 
the ceaseless use of the pen. (4) It calls for a 
higher degree of promptitude on the part of the 
pupil. (5) The teacher's work is done when the 
exercise is finished. 

6. Tests should be varied in their character as to 
the kind of ability tested. Particularly should there 
be a due proportion of the three kinds: (a) habit 
tests, (b) memory tests, (c) judgment tests. A brief 
consideration of each of these three follows : — 

Exception may be taken to this arbitrary classification, 
but as we are considering the question from the adminis- 
trative standpoint and aim at broad and practical dis- 
tinctions, no extended defense will be offered. 

The process of education consists in the acquisition of 
habits and judgments. 1 These two functions are suffi- 
ciently distinct to necessitate separate " testing." 

(a) The Habit Test. 

Doing and Making are the two forms of "testable" 
habits. Reading is a habit 2 — yielding of itself no 

*Cf. Bagley, "Educative Process," p. 115 et seq. 

2 Meaning that phase of reading which deals with learning to 
read and not that phase which means reading to learn. "In short, 
reading may signify a mastery of symbols or a study of literature." — 
Chas. A. and Frank M. McMurry, "The Method of the Recita- 
tion," New York, 1903, p. 310. 



218 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

tangible product. It is true that in acquiring it the 
pupil must have made many psychologic judgments ; 
but in testing a pupil's ability to read, we test some- 
thing which, if it is not already a matter of habit, 
must become such before the pupil has command 
of this chief tool of his mental workshop. If he has 
to perform a conscious judging anew at every word 
he sees on the printed page, he has not yet learned 
to read in any practical sense. Gymnastics and 
singing are other forms of the Doing habit. 

The testing of this class of habits presents certain 
difficulties arising from the fact that there is no 
permanent product. Two are obvious: much time 
is consumed in formally hearing each pupil read or 
sing a selection, or observing him go through a gym- 
nastic exercise; and there is apt to be wide varia- 
tion in the criteria employed by different teachers, 
and even by the same teacher at different times, in 
determining the " rating" of the pupil's work. On 
the other hand, there is an advantage in the teacher's 
being able to get, as it were, a " bird's-eye" view of 
the class as a whole, against which the shortcomings 
of the individual stand out in relief. 

Writing (and written spelling), and the working 
elements of drawing, sewing, and constructive work, 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 219 

are habits of the Making order, yielding a tangible 
product which may be filed for future reference. As 
in the Doing habits, a simple form of judging enters 
into their acquisition, but once acquired the result- 
ing products come largely as a matter of habit — 
" largely," because it is clear that in the advanced 
work of drawing and construction there is much 
"judgment" to be tested. But no pupil has learned 
to write or to draw who is obliged to consider, in a 
judging attitude, each letter of the alphabet as he 
forms it, or every stroke of his pencil as he makes a 
line. 

Before proceeding to the other forms of test we must 
justify the distinction between the Memory and the 
Judgment tests. 

Judgments are the results of the process of judging; 
and the process and the product must be sharply dis- 
tinguished. A judgment is a judgment, whoever may 
have performed the judging which produced it. You may 
judge and thus arrive at a judgment; I may accept the 
judgment without any judging. For instance, I may be 
curious as to the name of the tree before me. I might go 
through the various stages of judging, consulting botanical 
classifications, etc. ; instead, I ask you, for I know you 
have made many judgments of this sort. You tell me 
that it is an aspen. My curiosity is satisfied. I have 



220 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

acquired the judgment: This tree is an aspen. The 
only judging I have done has been incidental : I have cor- 
rectly judged that I can accept your statement with con- 
fidence ; I may have erred in not realizing that had I done 
the judging myself I should probably retain the judgment 
longer than I shall by taking it ready-made — nevertheless, 
I have the judgment and I got it without judging. 

"It is necessary to note a further distinction. A judg- 
ment may be either a fact or a principle : a fact is the 
statement of a relation between particular units, a principle 
is the "statement of a relation that is constant in a number 
of separate facts" ; * a fact is special, a principle is general. 

The act of judging, then, may be either the determining 
of a statement of fact 2 or the working over of facts until a 
common relation is discovered and expressed as a generali- 
zation. For instance, to revert to the former illustration, 
having learned that this tree is an aspen, I am told that 
that other tree is an aspen, and a third, and a fourth, and 
so on, until I know a score of particular aspen trees. By 
careful observation I discover that all these have a com- 
mon peculiarity in the shape of leaf and stem. From this 
I reach the generalization: Trees having round leaves 
and long stems flattened in planes perpendicular to each 
other, are aspens. In this case I have done my own 

^agley, "Educative Process," p. 166. Also, "the terms 'gen- 
eralization,' 'law,' and 'principle' may be looked upon as synony- 
mous." 

2 In which we may include for present purposes the application 
of generalizations to particulars, i.e. deduction. 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 221 

judging; but you might, as before, have given me this 
judgment as the result of your own judging. I then would 
have been in possession of the same judgment, but would 
not have had the exercise in judging. Thus judging may 
be concerned with either generalized or particularized 
judgments, with principles or with facts. 

In school work, the amount of judging which the pupil 
exercises in the acquisition of judgments depends largely 
upon the " method" of his teacher. She, with her tech- 
nical skill, will sometimes place before him ready-made 
judgments and force his acquisition of them, and at other 
times compel him of his own effort to reach judgments 
for himself. 1 In either case he learns a judgment: to 
recall the judgment at some future time is presumably 2 
an act of memory ; to arrive at a judgment de novo is an 
act of judging. The ability to perform each of these acts 
can be, and in the interest of good results should be, tested 
independently. 

1 "We may, then, make (i) our boy observe for himself by show- 
ing him what to look for and how to look for it ; or we may (2) lead 
him to see causal connection between two facts or sets of facts; or 
we may (3) tell him. To tell him is often, not the shortest way only, 
but also the best way; but how much of one or another procedure 
is to be used must be determined by the teacher's tact and perspi- 
cacity." — Barnett, op. cit., p. 13. 

2 "Presumably," because in a memory test a pupil might fail to 
remember a judgment and yet be able to recall it by repeating the 
process of judging by which originally he reached the judgment in 
question, 



222 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

Testing Memory is to test the extent of the pupil's 
fund of judgments ; testing Judgment is to test his ability 
to judge. 1 Memory tests concern the products of judging ; 
Judgment tests concern the processes of judging. 

(b) The Memory Test. 

Of the several forms of activity which the child is 
in school to exercise, one of the simplest is the memo- 
rizing of facts and generalizations. This form lends 
itself most readily to a test of results. Has the pupil 
learned, with a sufficient degree of surety, the facts, 
isolated or related, which it is his business to have 
acquired? This is the easiest question to answer 
by test, and it is well to settle it before testing the 
ability to judge, which in many respects is of higher 
grade than the ability to memorize. 

1 ". . . we may advert to the two different intellectual energies, 
called, respectively, Memory and Judgment. These are in every 
way distinct, and in passing from the one to the other there is a 
real, and not merely apparent, transition. Memory is nearly identi- 
cal with the Retentive, Adhesive, or Plastic faculty, which I have 
assumed to be perhaps the most costly employment of the powers of 
the mind and brain. Judgment again may be simply an exercise 
of Discrimination ; it may also involve Similarity and Identification ; 
it may further contain a Constructive operation. It is the aspect of 
our intellectual power that turns to account our existing impressions, 
as contrasted with the power that adds to our accumulated stores." — 
Alexander Bain, "Education as a Science," New York, 1892, p. 48. 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 223 

It is sometimes urged in criticism that any test of 
this kind can be only partial, that "the examination 
shows only whether the specific questions asked have 
been correctly answered, and not whether other 
questions equally important might or might not have 
been answered." 1 Yet if the particular questions 
are carefully selected, the law of averages operates 
so that the percentage of correct answers to those 
questions sufficiently approximates the percentage of 
correct answers which would result were the pupils 
asked all the possible questions on the subject under 
review. 

By way of experiment, spelling was selected as the sub- 
ject which best lends itself to mathematical consideration, 
and a special exercise was taken in classes of the 5B-8A 
grades. In each case the teacher compiled a list of one 
hundred words of ordinary difficulty, the spelling of which, 
to the best of her knowledge, the pupils had not theretofore 
formally studied. She assigned ten of these hundred to 
the class for study on each of ten consecutive school days. 
At the beginning of the eleventh day, ten words — one 
from each block of ten — were given as a spelling test ; 
later in the morning another ten, similarly selected, were 
given ; and in the afternoon the entire hundred words 
were given. The results were : — 

1 Gilbert, op. cit., p. 68. 



224 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 



5 B.... 
6A.... 

6B.... 

7 A.... 
7 B.... 
8A.... 



First Ten 

. 98.O .. 

. 85.O .. 

- 95-2 -• 

. 88.0 .. 

. 95.0 .. 

. 98.4 -. 



Second Ten 

98.O . 

8 5 .0 . 

97-5 ■ 

94.7 . 

95.0 . 

97-5 ■ 



Mean 
98.O 
85.O 

96.5 
9I.4 

95-o 
98.0 



Entire Hundred 
96.I 
92.O 

95-o 
92.0 

96.0 

97.6 



Allowing for the impossibility of securing exactly the 
same conditions for each of the three tests, the results on 
the selected group and on the entire hundred are suffi- 
ciently in accord to justify the practice of using the former 
as a substitute and equivalent for the latter. 

The study of every subject in the curriculum in- 
volves, at some stage at least, the memorizing of 
certain facts or generalizations. It is quite true that 
in certain subjects, notably the sciences, most of the 
" judgments "will not be given outright to the pupils, 
but will be developed by them through the guiding 
genius of the teacher. But because some judgments 
are the product of the pupil's own judging is no 
reason why the judging exercise should be accepted 
as a substitute for the pupil's mastery of the resulting 
judgments. The most skilful teaching can never 
relieve the pupil from the obligation of acquiring a 
fund of judgments to be drawn upon in the constant 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 225 

emergencies of life, most of which allow no time for 
the making of those judgments afresh. 

(c) The Judgment Test. 

We may test the pupil in his ability not only to 
remember or to recall those judgments which have 
been previously presented or worked out, but also 
to exercise the judging function, which we do by 
requiring him to make judgments de novo. Every 
subject, under good teaching, requires occasional, if 
not frequent, development of judgments by the pupils 
themselves. The necessity for testing this function 
and noting the advance of pupils therein is not, as 
a rule, adequately recognized. It is not to be 
accepted, it is true, as a substitute for either of the 
other two forms of tests, but, particularly in grades 
above the third, should be used regularly and with 
increasing frequency. 

The mere repetition, by memory, on the part of the 
pupil, of a judging exercise, does not test his judgment. 
For example, he may have taken his part in the class in 
the development of the solution of a particular problem 
in mathematics. Later, in a test, given that same prob- 
lem, he may respond creditably without in any measure 
indicating his ability to develop the solution, but merely 
his ability to remember the successive steps in the solution. 



226 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

Ordinarily, in arithmetic, the development of 
rules and the solution of problems; in grammar, 
the development of rules of syntax and their applica- 
tion to new sentences; in the content subjects, the 
making of new inferences, — all are judgment tests. 
The same lesson, or topic, or series of lessons, usu- 
ally permits of both memory and judgment test; 
in such cases the results of each kind of test may be 
quite at variance — which may or may not have a 
special significance. 

The following suggestive question papers 1 are 
submitted to indicate the difference between a mem- 
ory test and a judgment test, in each case upon the 
same lesson or series of lessons. It is hardly neces- 
sary to add that a single examination may, and 
usually should, include both kinds of questions. 

OF MILES 
SEVEN A 

(a) Memory 
(i) Who was Miles Standish? 

(2) Why had the Pilgrims come to this country? 

(3) In what relation did John Alden stand to Miles 
Standish ? 

1 For valuable assistance in the composition of these papers the 
writer is indebted to Miss Gertrude A. Price, Miss Grace L. Dun- 
ning, Miss Ella J. Trappan, Miss Mabel F. Jones, and Miss Lucy 
E. Stone, of Public School No. 85, Brooklyn, New York. 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 227 

(4) Whom did Miles Standish love ? 

(5) Who else loved her? 

(6) What errand did Miles Standish ask John Alden 
to perform for him? 

(7) Why did not Miles Standish do this errand himself? 

(8) Why did John Alden go? 

(9) How did John Alden deliver his message ? 
(10) What did Priscilla say? 

(b) Judgment 

(1) In what way were St. Gregory and his monk, St. 
Augustine, like Miles Standish and John Alden ? 

(2) How could Miles Standish be a "shield" and a 
"weapon"? 

(3) What is the meaning of 

"Turned o'er the well-worn leaves, where thumb marks 

thick on the margin, 
Like the trample of feet, proclaimed the battle was 

hottest." 

If you have any books in this condition, name them and 
the parts answering to the above description. 

(4) How could Priscilla throw away John Alden's 
heart? 

(5) Why should Priscilla mention the fact that religion 
was dear to her? 

(6) Why did not John Alden deliver his message at 
first in the beautiful language that Miles Standish expected 
he would? 



228 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

(7) Why did he talk so eloquently later on? 

(8) How can a pen give away a secret? 

(9) Why, do you think, did John Alden not suspect 
Miles Standish's love for Priscilla before he was asked to 
go on the errand? 

(10) Why did Miles Standish talk so much about him- 
self as a soldier before asking John Alden to go to Priscilla ? 

2. ENGLISH HISTORY. GRADE SEVEN B 

(a) Memory 

(1) What was the longest time during which Charles I. 
reigned without a parliament, and what was his excuse for 
doing so? 

(2) Name two ways in which Charles obtained money 
in this period. 

(3) Who invented the plan called "thorough," and 
what was its aim? 

(4) Over what tribunal did Archbishop Laud preside ? 

(5) For what offense did this tribunal impose fines? 

(6) How did this affect the Puritans? 

(7) What was John Winthrop's connection with these 
conditions and what did he do as a leader? 

(8) What was meant by "ship money"? Why did 
the people object to paying it? 

(9) How did John Hampden figure in this opposition ? 
(10) What American settlement was a refuge for Roman 

Catholics, and who was its leader? 

(n) Who was John Endicott and with what event was 
he connected? 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 229 

(b) Judgment. (With text-books) 

(1) We hear the Standard Oil spoken of as a monop- 
oly. What does this mean? 

(2) How did the expression "star chamber" originate? 

(3) Why could Hampden and Cromwell be called 
" strong and resolute"? 

(4) What is meant by "They were branded with red- 
hot irons"? 

(5) How could a sovereign "call" upon a "seaport"? 

(6) We pay in this country for the maintenance of an 
army and navy. Why did the English people in the time 
of Charles make such a fuss about doing the same thing ? 

(7) Are any of our servants to-day judges? What 
does it mean when it says "All these judges were servants " ? 

(8) "Brilliant" means "sparkling." What is meant 
by a "brilliant reign"? Do you believe in the "divine 
right of kings," and why? 

(9) What illegal tax do we pay to-day? 

(10) Write a brief summary of the events of the reign 
of Queen Anne. 

3. AMERICAN HISTORY. GRADE EIGHT A 

(a) Memory 

(1) Name four French explorers. Name one impor- 
tant event in the life of each. 

(2) What two things attracted the French to America? 

(3) By whose discovery and explorations did France 
lay claim to Louisiana and land bordering the Mississippi ? 



230 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

(4) What land was included in "New France " ? 

(5) What was the most important provision of the 
charter granted by King James? 

(6) Name three governors of Virginia. 

(7) Give the date and the name of the first Virginia 
settlement. 

(8) Of what did the new government consist after the 
reforms of 1619? 

(9) When was slavery introduced into Virginia? 
(10) What other kind of servants did the people have 

besides negro slaves? 

(b) Judgment. (With text-books) 

(1) Why is Champlain called the "Father of New 
France?" 

(2) What is the usual meaning of "handful"? What 
does it mean in "This battle took place when only a hand- 
ful of Englishmen were at Jamestown"? 

(3) Explain: "La Salle planted the French arms at 
the mouth of the Mississippi." 

(4) What is the meaning of the word gentleman on 
p. 27, par. 21 (Gordy)? Can a person who works hard 
with his hands be a gentleman ? Why ? 

(5) During the reign of which of Virginia's governors 
would you rather have been living in Virginia ? Why ? 

(6) Which do you think had more advantages as a 
place for settlement, Massachusetts or Virginia ? Why ? 

(7) Why did the Virginians prefer having slaves to 
having servants as we have them to-day? 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 231 
4. GEOGRAPHY. GRADE EIGHT A 

(a) Memory 

(1) Describe Africa as to its location in zones, the 
character of its coast line, the location and extent of its 
mountain ranges, and the chief characteristics of its river 
systems. 

(2) Describe the feeding of the Nile, the character of 
its upper and lower courses, and name three kinds of ruins 
peculiar to the section. 

(3) Name the four largest lakes of Africa. Describe 
their general size, source of water supply, and use to com- 
merce. 

(4) Name two animal products and two mineral prod- 
ucts in the output of which Africa excels the world. 

(5) What effect have the trade winds on northern 
Africa ? Account for the Desert of Kalahari. Why does 
the northern slope of the Atlas Mountains get plentiful 
rainfall ? 

(6) What is the common peculiarity of the ownership 
of the African countries? What has England done for 
Egypt? 

(7) How does Africa rank among the continents in 
development of resources, commerce, progress? What 
section has least chance for advancement? In what sec- 
tions is there most progress? 

(8) Locate three of these cities: Johannesburg, Cape 
Town, Alexandria, Cairo, Khartoum. Tell for what each 
of the other two is noted. 



232 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

(b) Judgment 

(i) Give several reasons why Africa has been explored 
and settled so much later than either North or South 
America. 

(2) "The Nile River, after flowing through thousands 
of miles of desert region, makes Upper Egypt one of the 
most fertile sections of the world." Explain how this is 
possible. What section of Africa would you prefer to 
visit, and why? 

(3) Victoria Nyanza and Lake Superior are of about 
the same size. Give some reasons why one is of greater 
commercial importance than the other. 

(4) How do you think the price of diamonds is affected 
by South Africa's control of ninety per cent of the world's 
output of diamonds ? Why ? 

(5) Why is not a large part of northern South America 
a desert like northern Africa ? If the mountains of South 
Africa lay in the direction of the Atlas Mountains, what 
difference, if any, would it make in the climate of South 
Africa? Give your reasons for your preference, if you 
were to choose between the two slopes of the Atlas Moun- 
tains for a home. 

(6) Why has the United States less opportunity for 
trade with Africa than have most of the countries of 
Europe? Egypt recently raised the cry, Egypt for 
Egyptians. What do they mean, and why are you for 
or against the demand? 

(7) Give two possible interpretations of Stanley's 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 233 

title, In Darkest Africa. Examine a map of Africa for 
the location of the principal railroads. Account for their 
distribution. 

(8) Explain why the number of large cities in Africa 
should differ from that of Europe. Give three reasons, 
from its location, for the development of Alexandria into 
a city of importance. 

5. HISTORY. GRADE EIGHT B 

(a) Memory 

(1) What was the object of the Annapolis convention? 
What was accomplished by it ? 

(2) For what purpose were the thirteen states asked 
to send delegates to Philadelphia in 1787? When was 
the Constitution adopted ? 

(3) What was Hamilton's plan for establishing the 
credit of the new government ? Give some of his reasons 
for what he wished to do. 

(4) What was the cause of the Whisky Rebellion? 
Its result? 

(5) Give an account of our relations with France dur- 
ing Washington's administration. 

(6) Write a short paragraph on Jay's treaty. 

(7) What president succeeded Washington? To what 

party did he belong? For what great principle did his 

party stand? 

(b) Judgment 

(1) What political reason was there in Washington's 
day for making communication easy between people 



234 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

living west of the Alleghanies and those living east of those 
mountains ? 

(2) In the Constitutional Convention, why did the 
small States insist upon equal representation among the 
States ? 

(3) What is meant by "The price of assumption was 
the location of the national capital on the Potomac" ? 

(4) What double purpose had Hamilton in recommend- 
ing that Congress pay the debts contracted by the States 
during the Revolution? 

(5) Mr. Fiske says of the elastic clause, "It is always 
important to know how far it will do to stretch it." In 
what way could it be stretched too far ? 

(6) Why does a direct tax meet with more opposition 
than an indirect one ? Cite some historical instances that 
would seem to prove that the direct tax is the more un- 
popular. 

(7) In what way did the Whisky Rebellion show that 
the new government was stronger than the old ? 

The principal's relation to tests and examinations is 
twofold : he must supervise their use by teachers, and 
he will himself use them as a means of supervision. 

1. As used by the teacher, tests are of value both 
for herself and for her pupils. 
(a) For the teacher. 

(1) It gives her an important measure of the 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 235 

response of the individual pupils to the requirements 
of the school, one which is somewhat more tangible 
and exact than the pupils' day-by-day activity. 

(2) The test may serve as a factor in helping the 
teacher properly to rate the pupils, though it will be 
but one of several factors. (See rating of pupils, 

P- I95-) 

(3) Perhaps the chief value of the test is that it 

shows the teacher the quality of her own teaching. 
The wise teacher will not always charge up against 
her pupils their poor showing on a test, but will 
frequently review her own method, questioning 
whether it is not that which may be held responsible 
for the delinquencies of the pupils. 
(b) For the pupils. 

(4) They have a disciplinary value in showing the 
pupils exactly what they know and what they do 
not know, and in forcing upon them the idea that 
the responsibility for results is fixed upon them and 
that they are to be held to account. 

(5) They may be used occasionally to encourage 
pupils who are disheartened over difficult work, by 
giving them a simple test to remind them that they 
have already accomplished something, and hence 
may justly be expected to accomplish yet more. 



236 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

(6) Tests help to fasten important topics. The 
emphasis which a topic receives when it is made the 
subject of a test-question usually makes a lasting 
impression upon the pupil's mind, whether he 
answered the particular question successfully or 
not. 1 

(7) Tests may be made a means of valuable train- 
ing along lines outside the subject-matter of the 
test. 

(a) To analyze properly the meaning of an ex- 
amination question and to state clearly the answer 
thereto are both excellent drills in the use of lan- 
guage. Indeed, much of the difficulty pupils have 
in solving problems in mathematics, for instance, 
comes from a failure to understand the meaning of 
the question — lack of ability to interpret the Eng- 
lish language. 

(b) A written examination demands from the pupil 

1 "The virtue of the examination lies, then, in its power to force 
strenuous mental effort to the task of organizing a large body of facts 
and principles into a coherent system. 

"... if organization is the most important and the most 
economical factor in promoting efficient recall — then the examina- 
tion is a legitimate means to a final end, and probably the most 
effective instrument that is at the command of the school for this 
purpose." — Bagley, "Educative Process," p. 334. 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 237 

careful though incidental attention to matters of 
penmanship, arrangement, form, etc. 

(c) A written examination calls for the exercise of 
good judgment on the part of the pupil in the appor- 
tionment of his time to different questions and 
determining the extent to which he should answer 
each. 

(d) Pupils, by reading and rating one another's 
written test papers, as they should occasionally, 
get valuable training in judgment and in the finer 
qualities of courtesy and tact. 

2. In making use of the test himself the principal 
may have at least three different motives : — 

(1) To test the teaching. When this is the aim, he 
must be sure that his test is a "fair" one. His right 
to give an examination at any time to any class on 
any subject is not to be questioned, but if he is to 
use the results in his estimate of a teacher's ability, 
he must limit his questions to those which cover the 
ground taught by the teacher in the given period. 

For instance, the principal might give an examination 
in trigonometry to a fifth-year class. He might have very 
good pedagogic or administrative reasons for doing this; 
and so long as he merely gave the examination and offered 



238 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

no criticism of the teacher because her pupils did not 
"pass" it, she would have no cause for complaint, although 
no doubt she would appreciate it if the principal ex- 
plained what he was after. On the other hand, if the prin- 
cipal, on account of the results of such an examination, 
charged the teacher with doing poor work, she would 
certainly have cause to protest. When the principal is 
examining in order to test the teacher, it should be under- 
stood that such is his purpose ; and his teachers should be 
trained to point out to him any unfairness, on this basis, 
of the questions he asks. 

(2) To "take stock." This at times is as im- 
portant for the school administrator as for the 
merchant. A good way to ascertain the relative 
condition of the classes from grade to grade is to 
give simple tests in the various subjects, using the 
same questions in every grade throughout each 
three or four years of the course. The tabulated 
results by grades and by classes will then show 
with fair accuracy the location of the weak spots, 
and consequently the places at which the maxi- 
mum of corrective teaching and managing must 
be applied. 

Results of tests in each class may be entered on blank 
forms, such as the following : — 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 239 



Test in 

Date 190- __ Class. 

Number of Pupils ln Attendance 




Total: 



Teacher 

The results for groups of classes can then be tabulated 
thus : — 



CORRECT 



Class 

8BB 

8BG 

8AB 

8AM 

8AG 

7BB 

7BM 

7BG 



Total 



240 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

(3) To settle appeals at promotion. It is well 
for the principal to have documentary support for 
his final decision as to the promotion or non-promo- 
tion of a pupil, even though the examination may not 
have been the controlling or even the chief factor in 
determining his decision. 

A few additional principles applicable to examina- 
tions, whatever their purpose, are noted : — 

i. State questions as clearly and as briefly as the 
subject permits. 

2. Vary the form of questions from time to time. 
Avoid stereotyped forms, to meet which teachers and 
pupils are tempted to waste time and effort. 

3. It is wise frequently to allow optional ques- 
tions, optional either by choice of the teacher or of 
the pupils. 

4. A question paper should be so worded as to 
permit of easy reading of the answers thereto. A 
given set of questions may be so loosely arranged 
and so vaguely expressed as to necessitate an im- 
mense amount of labor by the teacher in reading 
the answer papers; while by the exercise of a few 
minutes' care the same questions can be organized 
into such form as will save the corrector sixty or 
seventy per cent of her time and energy. 



THE PUPILS' SCHOLASTIC PROGRESS 241 

5. Examinations should usually come unheralded. 

6. Extreme care must be exercised in drawing 
conclusions from the results of any given examination 
or set of tests. Hasty generalization may work 
injustice toward some teacher or class of pupils; 
all factors that enter into the results in any case 
should be diligently sought after and accurately 
taken into account. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOP- 
MENT 

Although in any strict classification the four 
topics cannot be considered as coordinate, the moral 
development of the pupils and the principal's rela- 
tion thereto will be discussed under the subheads: 
(i) Discipline, (2) Attendance and Punctuality, 
(3) Habits and Ideals, (4) School Spirit. 

1. Discipline 

This is probably the most perplexing problem 
that confronts the principal. In his successful ex- 
perience as a class teacher, which it is here assumed 
that the principal has had, he has learned that " dis- 
cipline" should not be " separate from the work of 
the school and made a particular feature," 1 and 
he has learned and applied the other important 
principles underlying the proper government of a 
class. But as principal he is in command in a 

1 Gilbert, op. tit., p. 23. 
242 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 243 

broader field, and finds among his lieutenants a 
large proportion who are untrained in the practical 
management of their classes. As principal he must 
secure throughout many classes a rational system 
of class government, and throughout the school as 
a whole a unified system of school government ; and 
this he must develop and maintain while a varying 
proportion of his teachers are in that stage of their 
experience when their presence impairs rather than 
strengthens his plans. In studying the practical 
problem from the office of the principal, let us first 
consider five general propositions: — 

1. " Discipline" in a school is a natural, to-be- 
expected, and ever-present problem. The dis- 
cipline of a school may, and should, under ordinary 
conditions, improve from year to year; but as the 
work of the school means a continuous process of 
admitting to the school register hundreds of pupils 
in their infancy and discharging them in their youth, 
just so will the problem of discipline be a continuous 
one. The corollary to this proposition is: Be not 
discouraged. The principal, after five years in a 
school, finding that he is expending time and energy 
on the same old disciplinary problems, is prone to 
feel disheartened ; but he must not forget that while 



244 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

the problems are much the same, the personnel of 
the subjects is different — he is treating a new 
generation of pupils. His methods of treatment, 
it is to be hoped, are constantly improving; but he 
is dealing all the while with the same human nature, 
the same child nature. 

2. The principal must possess some philosophy 
of discipline: it may be a borrowed philosophy, 
or it may be the development of his own thought, 
the outgrowth of his own experience. But he must 
have some well-grounded collection of fundamental 
principles to guide him in his treatment of the 
general problem and to serve as the background 
against which he will set each individual "case" 
of discipline as it comes before him. 

The following philosophy of discipline is sketched, 
merely by way of suggestion, and without any thought 
that it is novel, complete, or final. 

"Discipline" of a class or other group of pupils is equal 
to the sum of the "disciplines" of the individual pupils. 1 

1 "Society is made up of individuals; all that is done in society is 
done by the combined actions of individuals ; and therefore, in indi- 
vidual actions only can be found the solutions of social phenom- 
ena. But the actions of individuals depend on the laws of their 
natures. . . ." — Herbert Spencer, "Education: Intellectual, 
Moral, and Physical," New York, 1907, p. 58. 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 245 

If every pupil in the school were properly and completely 
disciplined, the school would be in perfect discipline. 
Discipline for the individual is not merely a school prob- 
lem ; it is a life problem. Indeed, the content of the word 
might be extended to indicate the end and aim of all 
education. 

All sciences are interdependent. Pedagogy as a science 
is chiefly dependent upon the sciences of sociology, biology, 
and psychology ; others of course make material contribu- 
tions. The most significant generalization common to 
these three sciences is the doctrine of evolution : — 

1. In Sociology. — Civilization (the present state of 
discipline of society) came late in the historic view of the 
human race. Even within the period of civilization, we 
see that Despotism gives place slowly to Democracy ; gov- 
ernment from without gives place slowly to government 
from within. The school — the class — is a society ; and 
the growth in the character of the discipline of a class is a 
matter of time. The class, as One A, corresponds to the 
infancy of the civilized race, and is governed by absolutism ; 
the same class, become Eight B, corresponds to the ma- 
turity of the race, and is governed as a democracy. There 
is danger in giving a society in its infancy self-government 
for which it has not developed the capacity ; there is equal 
danger in restraining a society by absolutism when it has 
reached a maturity that qualifies it for democracy. Like- 
wise, it is dangerous to force self-government upon a 
One A class and equally dangerous to withhold it from 
an Eight B class. 



246 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

2. In Biology. — Again, the law of evolution. Keep- 
ing within the limits of the subdivision, human physi- 
ology, that phase of the subject is merely to be noted 
in passing, which concerns the relation of ventilation, 
posture, fatigue, etc., to discipline. In the physical life 
of the individual, at least during his school career, the 
most important stage is Adolescence. In the elementary 
school we deal with pupils on both sides of the crisis of 
adolescence, and throughout a considerable part of the 
period. In school administration we must give due con- 
sideration to this fact. 

3. In Psychology. — Again, evolution. Here we see 
adolescence as a mental phase, characterized by the 
efflorescence of activities previously dormant, as, for 
example, the religious sentiment. By a very rough classi- 
fication it may be said that we deal with pupils in school 
years 1-3, in their infancy ; in 4-6, in pre-adolescence ; in 
7-8, in adolescence. Of the three stages the second is the 
most difficult to treat. The infant is an infant and is to 
be treated as such; as a youth he is to be treated as a 
youth; but at the critical stage of pre-adolescence, he 
himself knows not whether he is child or youth, feels, but 
cannot analyze, the strife within between the two con- 
ditions, and taxes the skill of the most experienced of 
teachers. 

Whatever the other sciences involved, discipline is 
essentially a concern of psychology. Let us look into it 
from this view point. 

Reduced to its lowest terms, discipline, in its popular 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 247 

school sense, means that process which leads the individual 
to do the right thing. 1 Psychologically, discipline is a 
threefold matter of intellect, of feeling, and of will. (I 
am not unmindful that psychology has long since dropped 
the use of these terms to indicate separate and distinct 
faculties of the mind ; but the words must be retained for 
a while, I suspect, as a convenient terminology to apply to 
the most notable phases of consciousness.) Formal edu- 
cation has quite uniformly overtrained, and is yet over- 
training, intellect. But we should train the whole Mind, 
not merely one of its phases, intellect. 

We do right only when three conditions are satisfied : 
(1) we know what the particular right is; (2) we feel that 
we ought to do the right in any case ; and (3) we will to 
do the particular right. No two of these phases will 
suffice: (1) one may have a religious fervor for right 
doing and an iron will, but if he cannot decide the purely 
intellectual question as to what the right is in the par- 
ticular case, he will fail to do the right in that case ; (2) one 
may know clearly what the right in a particular matter is, 
have the will to do anything he sets out to do, and yet 
lack the feeling, the compelling motive, as, for instance, the 
sense of duty, and thus fail to do the right in the par- 
ticular case ; or (3) one may both know clearly and feel 
fervently as to a particular right conduct, and yet lack the 

1 "The word discipline implies a mechanizing process — the for- 
mation of an habitual reaction that shall function with little or no 
effort of attention after it has once been firmly established." — 
Bagley, "Educative Process," p. 214. 



248 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

necessary will-power, and again fail to do the particular 
right. 

How shall we train intellect, feeling, will? We have 
pretty thoroughly learned the method of intellect training. 
"Exercise strengthens faculty" is still the old reliable 
rule ; and it is in reality the law of training of all kinds. 
We have long recognized the necessity of drill of intellect : 
we train memory by memorizing ; we train judgment by 
judging; we train reason by reasoning, etc. 1 The same 
principle must be applied to feeling and will. Modern 
pedagogy, it is true, has developed many corollaries to this 
fundamental law of drill, but it is doubtful if there is 
any successful " method" which does not stand upon this 
foundation principle. How then shall we train for dis- 
cipline ? 

i. Train Intellect. — The child must know what is the 
right thing. Be sure that he does know before you expect 
him to do. Many "cases" of discipline originate in inno- 
cent ignorance on the part of the pupil as to what is the 
right in a particular condition. Be sure that the teacher 
knows what is right for the pupils to do. Be sure that 
she distinguishes between "conventions" and "laws of 
right." 2 Be sure, especially in the higher grades, that 
she is not overemphasizing mere school conventions and 

1 These statements may be taken in a large or in a limited sense, 
according to whether one believes or disbelieves in the possibility of 
"generalized" habits. In either case the fundamental principle 
holds. 

2 Cf. Gilbert, op. tit., p. 24. 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 249 

leading pupils to a belief that they are more important 
than the vital forms of righteousness. She must have a 
correct, or at least a sane, definition of "order," remem- 
bering that order, after all, is but a means, not an end, 
though somewhere along the line it may rightly enough 
be made an end for the sake of training. "Whispering," 
for example, as Dr. Balliet aptly puts it, "is not a disease, 
but a symptom." 

But the knowledge of right and wrong is a growth. In 
infancy the pupil knows the right because he is told that it 
is right, or else he appears to know the right because he 
has had no experience with the wrong. Although the 
teacher will not hold before the pupils and demand 
from them compliance with false conventions, yet in 
dealing with pupils in the stage of infancy she will not 
attempt to have them distinguish between conventions 
and moral laws. The child must be taught, with equal 
insistence, that he must not steal and that he must not 
put his knife into his mouth at meals ; for, while one is a 
matter of morals and the other a matter of manners, it 
would be a violation of good pedagogy to emphasize this 
distinction with him, or in any way to get into a discus- 
sion as to the " Tightness " of the acts. Broadly con- 
sidered, to steal, to lie, to kill, may be justifiable, that is, 
under certain circumstances, right; at any rate, adults 
may with comparative safety discuss the question as to 
whether they are ever right or not. But the child must be 
taught emphatically, unequivocally, that these things are 
wrong — they are wrong because you tell him so. In due 



250 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

time he will reach adolescence and maturity, gain his in- 
tellectual freedom, and take his turn at arguing meta- 
physical questions. 1 

Through all the subjects of the curriculum the pupil 
may be led to see what is and has been for ages considered 
right in the various and detailed relationships of life. In 
"The Moral Instruction of Children" Dr. Adler shows 2 
how the teaching of science, history, literature, etc., can 
develop the knowledge of right. As he matures, the pupil 
may be taught to reason on the wisdom of these rights. 
Probably no better rule can be given him than the old, old, 
golden one of considering questions from the standpoint 
of the "other fellow." 

2. Train Feeling. — The ultimate aim is that the senti- 
ment of Duty shall become a sense of Right for Right's 
sake, but this condition is the climax, reached only after 
years of growth. This sense of duty must come slowly 
through years of transition from the lowest motives up- 
ward, through an ascending series of feelings from infancy 
to adolescence, — fear, respect, love, ambition, are some 
of the milestones on the road to the terminal Sense of 
Duty. 3 The fundamental proposition is that the child 

1 "The first thing the child has to learn about this matter is, that 
lying is unprofitable, — afterwards that it is against the peace and 
dignity of the universe." — Oliver Wendell Holmes, "The Auto- 
crat of the Breakfast-Table," Boston, p. 117. 

2 P. 27 et seq. 

3 " . . . probably not until the onset of adolescence, — the 
abstract ideals of honor, duty, and obedience, functioning in con- 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 251 

must do right. It is only by doing right that he is trained 
to do right. If, at the age of four, he will do right 
through a dependable and sustained sense of duty, then 
that should be his motive. But if, as is actually the 
case, he can have no such lofty sentiment, then he must do 
the right because of some feeling lower in the scale, but, 
he must do right. If fear is the only motive that reaches 
him, then fear must operate; soon, through constant 
practice in doing right, fear will yield to something higher, 
love perhaps, or ambition, and thus in time will there be 
a growth to the climax. 

There are many opportunities in the class room for 
training feeling. Like intellect, it may be trained without 
in every case passing from the feeling phase to the willing ; 
that is, without the particular act of doing following the 
exercise in knowing and feeling. Throughout the train- 
ing the teacher must constantly and consistently emphasize 
the crime, and not the criminal. It is not that the mur- 
derer is a bad man, but that he committed a bad deed. It 
is not that John is a bad boy, but that he did a wrong thing. 
We hate the wrong, but we love the child. Many a teacher 
forgets this principle and treats the misdeeds of pupils as 
personal matters, affronts directed against her personally. 
The pupil's faults are to be regarded not as against the 
teacher, but as against himself or against law and society. 
The pupil, it is true, may have the personal feeling, but 

ceptual judgments, may come to dominate his conduct." — Bagley, 
"Educative Process," p. 189. 



252 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

as adolescence approaches, his growth should come as the 
result of the teacher's refusal to accept it in this spirit and 
her consistent treatment of his offenses as impersonalities. 

3. Train Will. — This "I will do right" is also a mat- 
ter of growth and the result of drill. There are many 
more class-room opportunities to train will than the average 
teacher appreciates. Before the pupil can be expected to 
exercise even a little self-control in big things, he must 
first be taught to exercise large control in little things. 
He must be taught to will in the little and less important 
matters, first. Most teachers wait to discipline the will 
until the pupil reaches some critical and important mat- 
ter; then they cannot afford to disregard his failure. 
Whereas if the same pupil had been trained to will suf- 
ficiently to meet minor matters of gradually increasing 
strain, he would have reached the major matter with a will 
prepared to meet it. 

To summarize: discipline is a matter of growth; we 
must not expect too much too soon ; * we must sympathize 

1 "Do not expect from a child any great amount of moral good- 
ness . . . there remains to be recognized the truth that there is a 
moral precocity which is also detrimental. Our higher moral facul- 
ties, like our higher intellectual ones, are comparatively complex. 
By consequence they are both comparatively late in their evolution." 
— Herbert Spencer, "Education," New York, 1907, p. 213. 

"It is very singular that we recognize all the bodily defects that 
unfit a man for military service, and all the intellectual ones that limit 
his range of thought, but always talk at him as if all his moral powers 
were perfect." — Oliver Wendell Holmes, "Elsie Vernier," 
Boston, p. 226. 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 253 

with failure, for we ourselves have failed ; we must respect 
physical and psychological adolescence; we must train 
for discipline, intellect so that it shall know the right, 
feeling so that it shall come instinctively to prefer right to 
wrong, and will so that it shall, by force of habit, act 
promptly in accordance with the dictates of trained in- 
tellect and feeling. 

Whatever the detail of his philosophy, the principal can 
undoubtedly accede to the proposition that discipline is 
a matter of growth from implicit to rational obedience, and 
agree with Dr. Bagley that "as far as the educative process 
is concerned, the child is an entirely different being at 
different levels of his growth." * 

3. Throughout all the grades of the school the 
pupils must feel the ultimate authority of the princi- 
pal as the administrator of the law. This does not 
mean at all that the principal will flaunt his authority 
or even refer to it ; but since it is true that the " per- 
sonality of the principal of the school is the chief 
factor of moral influence in it," 2 his influence for the 
right and against the wrong must be quiet, unob- 
trusive, but sure. " Teachers," says Payne, 3 "will 
secure that degree of discipline which they are sus- 
tained in enforcing, or which they are required to 

^'Educative Process," p. 185. 2 Adler, op. cit., p. 34. 

3 Op. cit., p. 55. 



254 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

enforce," and teachers and pupils alike must feel 
that the principal stands ever ready fearlessly to 
exercise to the limit his legal authority — whether 
that limit be corporal punishment, suspension, or 
expulsion — whenever occasion arises to demand 
such exercise. 

4. A school " atmosphere" must be created, an 
"esprit de corps" a pride in the school and its 
honor. This is so important and extensive a factor 
that it is later discussed as a separate topic. 

5. Preventive measures must be taken at every 
point, anticipating difficulty and thus forestalling 
its occurrence. A few, definite school regulations, 
general in their application, may be issued, so that 
certain classes of offenses may be clearly dealt with 
as violations of school rules. 

There must be fixed upon the teachers constant 
responsibility for the conduct of pupils. 

It would seem wise to carry out this policy to the extent 
of requiring that a teacher, upon leaving her pupils in the 
class room, should always notify the teacher of the nearest 
room of her temporary absence. The other teacher there- 
upon becomes responsible for the safety and conduct of 
the first teacher's pupils in addition to her own. This does 
not mean a too detailed supervision of these pupils, but it 
does mean, first, that the pupils realize, as a matter of 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 255 

course, that they are answerable to some person in author- 
ity in the school, and, second, that in case of accident or 
other unfavorable occurrence, the public has the assurance 
that reasonable effort was made by the school adminis- 
trators to prevent it. 

Pupils must feel that they are at all times re- 
sponsible to any and every teacher in the school. A 
pupil of a higher grade, for example, who shows any 
disrespect to a teacher of some other, and probably 
of a lower, grade, should, as a matter of logical 
consequence, be temporarily transferred to the room 
of that teacher until she is convinced that he is 
ready to act with proper respect and obedience. 

The constant deference on the part of the princi- 
pal to the administrative authority of the teacher, 
previously referred to (p. 85), is of immense value in 
maintaining the tone of the school. Some super- 
vision of pupils leaving the class room individually 
during the session is a preventive of disorder (see 
p. 168). The attempts of the misbehaving pupils 
to thwart the cooperation of parents and teachers by 
clever forgery of signatures, etc., must be met by 
equal cleverness in their detection and punishment. 
Notwithstanding that the whole effort of the principal 
will constantly be in the direction of developing in 



256 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

the pupils the performance of right for right's sake, 
and fostering the highest possible ideals as motives 
for good conduct, still, at all points, throughout the 
long process of development of these lofty ideals, the 
pupils must feel that wrong conduct will be detected 
and punished by those in authority, and that it is 
useless to try to "win out" along wrong lines. 

An established and advertised policy in issuing 
letters of recommendation to pupils leaving school 
may be made to contribute toward their good con- 
duct while they are yet in school. These letters 
may be in accordance with certain forms, copies of 
which are kept posted in the class rooms as a con- 
stant reminder to the pupils that the school record 
"counts" in this practical way. 

The following set of forms is suggested : — 
LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION 

ISSUED FROM 

PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 100 

FORM ONE: 

Public School No. 100, New York 

190--- 

To Whom it May Concern: 

I take pleasure in recommending. __. 

, who has been a pupil of this school 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 257 

for years. He (she) has been punctual and regular 

in attendance, industrious and successful in his (her) work, 
and courteous and well-behaved in every way. He (she) 
has been one of our very best pupils, and I am confident 
merits your most favorable consideration. 

Respectfully, 



Teacher 
I am very glad to indorse the above statements. 



Principal 

FORM TWO: 

Public School No. 100, New York 

190--. 

To Whom it May Concern: 

I take pleasure in recommending to your favorable 
notice,... . , who has 

been a pupil of this school for years. He (she) has 

been punctual and regular in attendance, industrious and 

well-behaved. 

Respectfully, 

Teacher 
I am glad to indorse the above statements. 

Principal 



258 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

FORM THREE: 

Public School No. 100, New York 

_ 190— 

To Whom it May Concern: 

I hereby recommend , 

who has been a pupil of this school for years. He 

(she) has been passably punctual and regular in attend- 
ance and fairly wellbehaved and industrious. 
Respectfully, 

Teacher 
I indorse the above. 

Principal 

FORM FOUR: 

Public School No. 100, New York 

190--- 

To Whom it May Concern: 

I am asked to recommend , 

who has been a pupil of this school for years. I 

regret that I can only say that he has been irregular in 
attendance and punctuality, poor in his work, and gener- 
ally ill-behaved. Respectfully, 

Teacher 
I am sorry that I must indorse the above. 

Principal 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 



2 59 



In case of graduates, the words " and who was gradu- 
ated i9o___" are added to the first 

sentence in either one or two. 

It will be noticed that all of the above are addressed to 
whom it may concern, and hence are designed to be given 
to pupils upon their own request. It is suggested that 
requests by mail from outsiders for information concern- 
ing pupils be replied to in the following form : — 

Public School No. ioo 
Broadway and Ftjlton St. 



■190-— 



M. 



Deab J 

Replying to your favor of _, 

requesting information regarding 

, I beg to state that the following is a 

transcript of h record for the last years ( 

terms) in which _.he was a pupil here : 



Term 


Grade 


Days 

Absent 


Lessons 


Conduct 


Feb.-June, 190.. 
Sep. 'o -Jan. 'o 
Feb.-June, 190.. 
Sep. '0 -Jan. 'o 
Feb.-June, 190.. 











260 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

Our record, further, shows that __he was born 

189—., admitted to this school, 

1 , and discharged, 

(graduated) , 1 

Respectfully, 

Principal 

To turn now to the more specific methods of dis- 
cipline growing out of the foregoing principles, they 
will be considered under five heads. 

1. New teachers must be trained to become good 
disciplinarians, in the better sense of that term. 
They need more encouragement and attention gen- 
erally and more detailed instructions than do the 
experienced teachers, and in no respect more than 
in this matter of discipline. Such teachers need 
especial help in the details of class management. 
With so valuable a literature on this branch of the 
subject available, it is unnecessary here to give more 
than a synopsis of general principles. These the 
teacher must study until it becomes a matter of 
instinct or second nature for her to follow them in 
all her management. 

First, the teacher must be led to appreciate the 
value in successful class management of normal 
physical environment for the pupils. She must 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 261 

secure proper conditions: as to the room, its light- 
ing, equipment, and adjustment; as to the air, its 
temperature and circulation; and as to the pro- 
gramme, its results upon the pupils as to fatigue and 
relaxation. 

Secondly, the teacher must prepare her work in 
accordance with good method. Good, honest work 
gained from the pupils by well-prepared teaching is 
the certain preventive of disorder. At every period 
of class exercises, the more skillful the method em- 
ployed by the teacher, the less opportunity is there 
for the pupils to develop habits of misconduct. 

Thirdly, the teacher must remember that "the 
very atmosphere of the class room should be such as 
to encourage moral refinement; it should possess 
a sunny climate, so to speak, in which meanness 
and vulgarity cannot live." 1 But this atmosphere 
is more than a matter of physical environment and 
teaching method; it is primarily a matter of the 
teacher herself, and hence she must cultivate those 
personal qualities, the exercise of which will in 
great measure insure decorum and right behavior 
among her pupils. The most valuable of those 
personal qualities are : — 

1 Adler, op. tit., p. 33. 



262 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

(i) A calm and quiet manner. Quiet begets quiet. 
The teacher's self-control impresses pupils with the 
feeling that the teacher has inexhaustible reserve, 
so that it would be useless for them even to attempt 
to fathom it. 

(2) Firmness and decision. These are in no way 
inconsistent with kindness and kindliness. Pupils 
respect the firm hand and the decisive will. 

(3) Industry and energy. The spirit of work is 
contagious. The working teacher has working 
pupils. 

(4) Cheerfulness. Work is not related to solem- 
nity. A cheerful spirit will induce productive work 
where a " soured" disposition can at best get only 
time service. 

(5) Sympathy. By this is meant the deep, true 
sympathy with boy- and girl-nature; no " molly- 
coddling," but a sincere desire to get the pupil's 
view point, to appreciate his problems, to get into 
his life, and to help him to help himself. 

(6) Vigilance. The alertness of the eye, ear, and 
trained perceptions will permit little that occurs 
in the class to escape notice. On the other hand, 
good judgment as to what to recognize and refer 
to on the moment, and what to stow away in memory 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 263 

to be drawn upon later if needed, must be ever 
present. 

(7) Fairness and justness. The pupils forgive 
almost anything else in a teacher but unfairness or 
partiality. 

(8) Order, system, and neatness. These virtues 
of the teacher reflect themselves in corresponding 
virtues in the pupils. 

(9) Scholarship. This alone will not discipline 
a class, but the teacher who has it may with it com- 
mand the respect of her pupils, and this respect 
is the best foundation upon which to rear the super- 
structure of class control. 

For most new teachers, however, mere emphasis 
of these positive principles is insufficient and must 
be supplemented by continual cautions as to "what 
not to do." For instance, they must be warned 
against : — 

(1) Not working pupils enough. 1 It is more diffi- 
cult to do nothing than to do something; particu- 



1 "The amount of moral injury which results from constantly 
demanding less of children than they are capable of doing, and from 
keeping them on work that has grown stale to them, cannot be esti- 
mated." — George Edmund Myers, Pedagogical Seminary, vol. 
xiii, p. 448. 



264 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

larly is it more difficult to make pupils do nothing 
than to make them do a specific something. 

(2) Not maintaining good order at the start. The 
teacher passes over the early infractions with the 
thought, if she thinks about it at all, that she will 
discipline when there is something more serious to 
consider. 

(3) Not having carefully planned system for the 
changing of activities. Good teaching method carries 
the class along nicely during the lessons, but the 
"between times" are bothersome. The teacher 
must learn both to merge one exercise into another 
so that there are few "breaks," and also to plan the 
inevitable breaks, e.g. the distribution of materials, 
the changing of seats, the dismissals, etc., so that 
they may be executed without confusion. 

(4) Giving unnecessary directions and orders. 
It is far better to give one carefully thought out, 
rational order and see that it is obeyed by all, than 
to give half a dozen different and probably conflicting 
directions in the same time. 

(5) Threatening. The quiet teacher who gives 
orders and tacitly but clearly expects them to be 
obeyed, leaves the pupils to "guess" what will 
happen to them in case of disobedience, until such 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 265 

disobedience occurs, when the punishment comes 
surely, promptly, and unmistakingly. 

(6) Scolding and using sarcasm and epithets. 
Very rarely indeed should the teacher use these 
weapons, and then only as a deliberate and judicial 
punishment. 

(7) Cultivating the picturesque and bizarre. It 
seems to be a perversity of substitutes and new teach- 
ers to run off into spelling matches, tactics, and 
other exercises entirely legitimate in their place 
and in the hands of experienced teachers, instead 
of keeping down to business. 

(8) Driving the willful child into obstinacy. In- 
stead of avoiding conflict, she is apt to think it her 
duty to raise issues and "conquer" the pupil's will. 

(9) Assigning school exercises as punishments. 
The wrong of doing this needs no demonstration, 
yet it is a mistake made by nearly every new teacher. 

(10) Punishing a group for the offense of an 
individual. Far better is it to let a dozen guilty 
pupils escape than to punish them and with them a 
single innocent pupil. 

Compare the provision in Richmond: "When an 
offense that demands punishment has been committed, 
and it is impossible to fasten the guilt upon the proper 



266 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

parties, the teacher may administer general punishment 
to the entire class." — Rule 76. 

Every teacher must understand what "order" 
is. First, she should have a definite concept of the 
term, as broad a one as circumstances permit ; and 
then, she must demand and get that kind of order. 

The biology of the matter must not be lost sight of. 
"During the period of rapid growth a nerve center craves 
for activity. It is for this reason that during infancy and 
early childhood, when the reflexes of the spinal cord are 
rapidly maturing, little children are constantly moving 
about ; and, if they are normal, never of their own accord 
sit still ; while to the perverted moral sense of the school- 
master, sitting still is one of the chief virtues of the 
schoolroom. The kindergarten has adjusted itself to this 
biological fact ; the school has not." * 

We hear much, in these days, of secondary mo- 
tives; and prizes, marks, merits, and the like are 
condemned wholesale. There is danger in follow- 
ing this line of theory too far. There is, in reality, 
no such thing intrinsically as a secondary motive ; a 
motive is secondary only in relation to some primary 
motive which is recognized as loftier and less egoistic. 
What for one person under a certain condition may 

1 Thomas M. Balliet, "Educational Foundations," vol. xviii, 
P- 495- 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 267 

be a basely secondary motive, may for another be a 
relatively high and primary motive. In treating a 
class of pupils it must be remembered that order 
is to be maintained. If this can come by appeal 
to high motives, then those are the motives to use; 
but if these motives do not reach the class, the teacher 
must promptly use motives progressively less high 
until she comes upon one that reaches. From this 
level she may then begin to work up through the 
scale, carrying the class to higher and better ideals — 
but, she must have order. 

2. Beyond these specific suggestions which the 
principal will offer to new teachers, there is a general 
duty which he owes to all teachers. New and 
experienced alike, they must be aided by automatic 
provisions to treat " cases" of discipline themselves. 
They must be given definite disciplinary powers in 
such matters as punishment of pupils, appealing to 
parents, and so on. The teacher should clearly 
understand how far she may go in the administra- 
tion of punishment : what limits she should put upon 
her use of reproof and reprimand; what privileges 
may properly be withheld from pupils; to what 
extent systems of merit and demerit may be used; 
how long pupils may be detained after sessions, etc. 



268 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

Wholesale detention of pupils is of little good effect; 
indeed, it is apt to be demoralizing rather than reforming. 
It is limited in many cities : e.g. Newark and Rochester, 
to one hour ; New York and Jersey City, to thirty minutes ; 
Cleveland, to twenty minutes. 

"Punishment by keeping children after school should 
be reduced to the minimum because of the devitalized 
condition of the air." * 

Whether or not teachers should enter into direct 
communication with parents in regard to the dis- 
cipline of pupils, it is clear that there should be no 
misunderstanding on the point between principal 
and teachers. The limit of responsibility and the 
limit of restraint put upon the teachers should be 
accurately denned. 

One extreme is for the principal not only to permit 
teachers to communicate directly with parents on any 
matters concerning the welfare of pupils, but to refuse to 
take part in such communication, thus throwing the teach- 
ers upon their own resources. 

The opposite course is entirely to prohibit teachers from 
writing notes to parents, having all communications go 
directly from the principal to the parents. 

A middle course is to permit teachers to write notes, 
but to have all such notes countersigned or indorsed by 
the principal. Such a plan has certain advantages, 2 and 
1 Rowe, op. cit., p. 1 66. 2 Cf. pp. 46, 105. 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 269 

in following it, it is helpful to prescribe certain note 
forms to be used under all ordinary conditions. If 
" blank" copies of these forms can be furnished to the 
teachers for use in each case, there is a gain in economy 
of effort for the teacher, and in a guarantee of good ar- 
rangement of the note that is sent. 

Forms for use in discipline are here suggested : — 

Public School No. 100 
Broadway and Fulton St. 

New York, 190— 

M 

Dear : 

I am sorry to tell you that 

is disorderly in the class room. Naturally this is affecting 

h school work. Will you please to give the matter 

your attention, and oblige, 

Respectfully, 

Teacher. 

Public School No. 100 
Broadway and Fulton St. 

New York, 190-— 



ML. 



Dear _: 

I regret that I must inform you of 's 

misconduct. To-day 



270 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

I am sure that you do not approve of such behavior and 
trust that you will cooperate to prevent its recurrence. 
Respectfully, 

Teacher. 

Where such forms are supplied the teacher is not to 
feel hampered by their use ; if she wishes to send a note 
not in accordance with a form, she should be free to do so 
with the approval of the principal. 

3. When the teacher has exhausted her resources 
in the discipline of a pupil, she should have the 
opportunity of referring the case to the principal. 
In such a case, should she send the pupil from the 
room with a peremptory verbal order for him to 
"go to the principal"? Or should she follow some 
system of formal report? In favor of the former 
procedure it may be said that the teacher wastes 
no time and immediately rids herself of the trouble- 
some pupil. On the other hand, the time that it 
takes to write a formal complaint is compensated 
for by the added dignity and seriousness 1 which the 

Psychological "vividness," one of the factors of recall, is thus 
employed. Cf. Bagley, "Educative Process," p. 171: "If the child 
is to be corrected for a serious fault, it is necessary to make the ex- 
perience of correction as vivid as possible in order absolutely to insure 
an inhibitory effect in the future." 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 271 

complaint assumes, and by the evidence that is 
thus given to the accused pupil and all the others 
that the teacher is acting in a calm and judicial 
manner. 

For the adoption of a formal system, the following sug- 
gestions are offered : — 

A card of some such arrangement as this — 

DISCIPLINE 



Case Settled 



Date:- 



By- 



Public School No. 100 

Room No Date 190-- 

Name 

Reason 



Teacher. 

(No pupil reported should be permitted to return without credential from the office.) 

should have entered on it all the necessary information as 
to the items indicated. The complaint should be specific. 
General charges, while they may be well understood by 
the principal, are not readily handled. The principal 
realizes that a boy whose misconduct takes the form of 
petty disorders and sly meannesses is a more troublesome 
problem for the teacher than the boy who deliberately 
assaults another or willfully breaks a pane of glass ; but 



272 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

this is not so well understood by the layman, particularly 
by the parent, or the board of education member before 
whom the case may ultimately come upon an appeal. 
Hence the principal cannot accept a charge of "general 
disorder, " because that is too indefinite ; nor of "talking, " 
because that is usually regarded lightly by laymen; nor 
of "inattention," because that is a psychological matter 
and chargeable to the teacher and her method. But 
"willful disobedience," "impudence," "insolence," are 
recognizable offenses ; and it is better to make even these 
more specific, and to frame charges thus: "I told him to 
change his seat and he refused to do so." "He told me 
'I will not' when I ordered him to pass to the line." 
"Maliciously kicked William during a recitation." 

The cases of general disorder can usually be reached by 
reducing them to their lowest common denominator, 
namely, a specific instance of willful disobedience. 

A pupil thus reported should not be permitted under 
any circumstances to return to his room without authority 
from the principal. He is not to return with a statement 
that "the principal is not in his office," nor even to get his 
hat or his books; these can be sent to the principal by 
the teacher or sent for by the principal. Once reported 
in this way, the pupil is to feel that he has taken himself 
out of the class society, and only a satisfactory settlement 
can restore him to his place. 

It is almost needless to say that when a pupil 
has been reported to the principal, he shall receive 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 273 

no consideration, pending the settlement of his case, 
which tends to make his ostracism in any way- 
agreeable or interesting: he must not be sent on 
errands because he is handy; he must not even 
be a witness of the routine work of the office, for 
this has a passing interest for him; he must be 
kept, so far as may be, alone with his thoughts. 

Frequently the principal may consider the case 
one which the teacher could have handled ; when 
this is so, he may place his own ideas before her, 
and ask if she still wishes the formal complaint to 
stand. If she does, the principal will take her at 
her word and prosecute the case; on the contrary, 
if she sees that she had not exhausted her own re- 
sources, she may make some excuse for hunting up 
the pupil and securing from him some satisfactory 
assurance of his good intentions. She may then on 
behalf of the pupil request the principal to cancel 
the formal charge, thus frequently winning over 
the pupil by her intercession for him. 

4. How shall the principal dispose of the case 
when it reaches him? By observing certain prin- 
ciples he may dispose of disciplinary cases promptly, 
unhesitatingly, and yet satisfactorily and with due 
regard to the individuality of the pupil. 



274 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

(i) He must maintain a judicial attitude and tem- 
per throughout. He will avoid the personal element 
and keep the issue to the point that the pupil has 
violated law and rules. 

(2) He must bear in mind the progressive char- 
acter of proper discipline, varying with the age and 
understanding of the pupil. 

(3) His treatment will be proportioned to the 
magnitude of the offense, the spirit in which it was 
committed, and the past record and personal equa- 
tion of the offender. 

(4) He will state the complaint to the pupil and 
hear his defense. 

(5) If possible he will lead the pupil to convict 
himself. 

(6) He will remember that reformation, correction, 
settlement, and not revenge, are sought; punish- 
ment is to be applied only if necessary. 

"A public punishment is fearfully unequal in its in- 
cidence : one boy feels the publicity so much more than 
another ; moreover, it either hardens the offender and 
destroys his self-respect, or else, if he takes it gamely, it 
makes him a hero; as for the onlookers it makes them 
insufferably self-righteous." * 

1 J. L. Paton, "Educational Foundations," Vol. XVIII, p. 529. 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 275 

(7) He will get the desired result, if possible, by 
working with the pupil alone. The older the pupil 
the more effective the appeal to his sense of 
manhood, his sense of right, the " square deal," 
etc. 

(8) When the pupil admits his error, at least on 
his first offense, there remains only that he should 
give some tangible evidence of his contrition and his 
intention to do right in the future. This he may do 
in a variety of ways, for instance : — 

(a) If he has damaged property he may repair or re- 
place it. 

(b) If he has taken from his class time which did not 
belong to him, he may forfeit his own time. 

(c) If he has committed an offense against the class, 
he may apologize to them ; or if against his teacher, to 
her. 

If it is a class matter, his reinstatement might 
depend upon a favorable vote of the class. If a 
teacher matter, he may be given an opportunity of 
writing a letter of apology and of assurance as to 
his future conduct, which the principal may send 
to the teacher for her consideration. 

If a boy "dodges" the issue and is inclined to 
charge his own misconduct to "the other boys," 



276 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

he may logically enough be transferred to a girls' 
class where there are nq boys to disturb him. 

When he is returned to his class, he may be re- 
instated on probation. 



.190. 



M. 



In view of 's desire for 

a trial in his class, I reinstate him on PROBATION. 

Please send him to me daily at M. with a report 

as to his conduct : — 



Day 
No. 


Day of Week 


Conduct 


Teacher 


Approved 


I 










2 










3 










4 










5 
6 










7 
8 











(9) Under certain conditions a principal will re- 
port a discipline case to the pupil's parents : (1) if 
it is a repeated offense by a pupil too young to rea- 
son clearly in the premises; (2) if it is an offense 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 277 

by a pupil old enough to reason, who refuses to 
carry out the reasoning to its logical conclusion; 
(3) if the offense points to physical defect as its 
cause. 

". . . the physical side of the child's nature is the 
source of a far larger amount of psychical deformity than 
is usually admitted. Any child under question should be 
assumed to be weak or degenerating physically, until the 
investigation has falsified the assumption." * 

The chief reasons for referring to the parent are 
to secure cooperation 2 of the parent and teacher, 
or to insure adequate punishment of the pupil. 
The principal may rightfully take the position that 
he assumes that the parent desires that his child 
shall do right and respect law and rules. He may 
point out, when punishment is required, that the 
parent has greater resources at his command than 
has the school, and that the parent may use whatever 
form of punishment seems best fitted. If the teacher 
had but one pupil, and that his, — the principal may 

1 Rowe, op. cit., p. vii. 

2 So stated in the rules in some cities, for example, St. Louis : 
"For the purpose of securing the cooperation of parents or guardians, 
any pupil may be sent home from school by the principal ; provided, 
however, that such temporary suspension shall not extend over a 
longer period than two days," etc. — Rule 50. » 



278 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

explain to the parent, — then it would be an easy 
matter for the teacher to handle the case without 
any appeal to the parent ; but as she has a constant 
duty to some forty or fifty other pupils, it must be 
clear that in justice to them she should not be re- 
quired to devote an unreasonable amount of time to 
his child. On this basis the parent may be required 
to deal with his child in such a manner as shall 
guarantee the propriety of his reinstatement to his 
class. In referring to the parent, the principal 
must be "sure of his case." He must have a clear 
case in order to guard against a just appeal from 
his decisions by the parent — a case so clear that, 
if the parent does appeal it, the principal and the 
school are sure to be upheld and vindicated. 

The following form is suggested for the reference of a 
case to the parent : — 

Public School No. 100, 
Broadway and Fulton St., 

New York, 190— 

M. 

Dear : 

I regret I must inform you of 's 

misconduct in school. e has been reported to me by 

M for 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 279 

I have been obliged therefore to withdraw h from 

h class until you call in regard to h reinstatement. 

Respectfully, 

Principal 

This is not a suspension of the pupil, for he is kept in 
the school awaiting the parent's attention. Of course, in 
most cities, the attendance of the parent cannot legally 
be demanded by the principal, so that the principal should 
never use a note of this form unless he is ready to follow it 
up, if the parent fails to respond, with formal suspension 
of the pupil in accordance with law. 

(10) If corporal punishment is permitted, as it is 
in many cities, the principal must exercise consider- 
able discretion in its administration. 

a. He should reserve this form of punishment for 
a general emergency, or as a "last resort" in the case 
of an individual offender. Almost without exception, 
the adolescent pupil should never be so punished. 

Cf. Providence: "No scholar above the primary grades 
shall be liable to corporal punishment." — Rules, Art. 
XIV, Sec. 1. 

b. He should always have witnesses to the pun- 
ishment. 1 It is a decided advantage to have the 
teacher-complainant present. 

1 A witness is required in Richmond. 



280 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

c. Even though it be not required by law, he will 
do well to have the written authority — or better, 
request — of the parent. 1 

When the parent protests against concerning himself 
with his child's misbehavior, and intimates that they did 
things better when he went to school, meaning that the 
switch was more in evidence, the principal may slip for- 
ward the following form for him to sign : — 

190--- 

To the Principal, 

Public School No. 100. 

Dear Sir: 

In view of the repeated misconduct of my son, 

, I hereby request you to apply such 

corporal punishment in his case as in your judgment may 
seem advisable. Respectfully, 

(Signed) __.. 



By refusing to sign, he convicts himself of not having 
meant what he said ; by signing, he minimizes the effect 
of any protest he may make subsequent to the adminis- 
tration of the requested punishment. 

If corporal punishment is prohibited by statute 
or by rule, the principal may argue to the parent 
who wants his child whipped that as the school can- 

1 Such consent is required by the rules in Louisville and Providence. 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 281 

not do it and he can, it is clearly a matter for him 
to attend to. 

No discussion of the merits of the corporal punishment 
question is attempted, because: (1) for principals in a 
large number of cities it is an academic question; (2) it 
has already been amply and ably treated in pedagogic 
literature ; and (3) we are dealing with the administrative 
phase of school problems. However, the following gen- 
eral propositions are submitted. 

1. The great majority of teachers and principals who 
are dealing with boys, those who are closest to the problems 
of the school and who are held most directly responsible 
for the education of the pupils, doubt the wisdom of 
absolutely prohibiting corporal punishment. This does not 
prove that they are heartless or cruel or unthinking or unfit. 

2. The majority of school people who believe in pro- 
hibiting corporal punishment are educational theorists or 
else educators who are not directly concerned with or 
responsible for the discipline of boys. This does not 
prove that they are insincere or unthinking or unfit. 

3. The theorists, who, appealing to popular prejudice, 
have succeeded in having corporal punishment legally pro- 
hibited in places, have not demonstrated that there has 
been a gain in the moral development of pupils. The 
practicalists, who have the technical insight and experi- 
ence, but not the popular side of the question, can readily 
demonstrate that in most cities the education of hundreds 
of pupils is thereby seriously hampered. 



282 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 



4. The opposition of these two forces, the theorists and 
the practicalists, must eventually result, either in the 
defeat of the theorists or in the discovery of some more 
satisfactory substitute for corporal punishment than any 
that has yet been advanced. Pupils must be trained to 
respect law. Law must have a sanction. The present 
sanctions offered as substitutes for corporal punishment 
are inadequate. If adequate sanctions can be found, every 
practical school man will rejoice as sincerely as the most 
enthusiastic reformer. 

5. In order that he may handle each case 
promptly, speedily, and intelligently, the principal 
must have some system of keeping a record of his 
discipline. 

A card system, with a five-by-eight card of the follow- 
ing form, is convenient : — 

DISCIPLINE 

Father's Name Name 

Address Date of Birth- 

Business Address Date of Admission 



Date Room 



Teacher 



Complaint 



Disposition 



Date 
Settled 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 283 

The mere filling out of this card in the presence of the 
pupil and in response to his answers to the principal's 
questions, lends an impressive dignity and seriousness to 
the situation. In filling in for Disposition, the principal 
may use a simple code of abbreviations : p 5/18 = postal 
sent to parent on May 18 ; 1 mm 5/19 = note form No. 1 
sent to mother by mail May 19 ; f c 5/20 = father called 
May 20; pr 5/22 = placed in class on probation, May 22, 
etc. The original card of complaint by the teacher is at- 
tached to this record card until the case is settled. Upon 
settlement, the record card is filed alphabetically, with all 
correspondence, probation sheets, etc., attached thereto. 
If the same pupil comes before the principal on a second 
complaint, reference to this card immediately recalls to 
the principal all the circumstances of the former com- 
plaint and enables him to act with greater intelligence 
than if he but trusted to his memory. 

Any consideration of the topic of Discipline would 
be incomplete without some discussion of the so-called 
self-government systems which have been experi- 
mented with in many schools with varying success. 

The Gill system, 1 as exemplified in the New Paltz 

1 Mr. Wilson L. Gill is president of "The American Patriotic 
League," chartered under the laws of Congress "to proclaim the 
necessity for systematic instruction in citizenship, in the schools and 
out of them ; to cultivate the knowledge of American principles, laws, 
history, and progress, and to instill American ideas into the minds 



284 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

Normal School, provides for school cities wherein 
the pupils of the several grades select from among 
their own numbers a mayor and other executive 
ofhcers, members of a city council, and judges and 
other court officers; and for a school state, com- 
posed of the pupils of the entire school, who, in 
accordance with the terms of a constitution, select 
a governor, legislators, and judicial officers. The 
general plan is extremely flexible, however, and 
admits of wide and varied application. The advan- 
tages claimed are: it gives the students a voice 
in the management of the school; it supplements 
theory with practice; it makes school government 
an instrument for social and political improvement ; 
it strengthens the sense of individual responsibility ; 
it trains for civil service; the time and energy de- 
manded for its supervision is well spent. 

As compared with the Gill system, the Ray plan, 
initiated in the John Crevar School, Chicago, by 
Mr. John T. Ray, involves less machinery and fewer 
officers, provides for no courts of justice, and frankly 

and hearts of Americans, native and adopted, of both sexes and all 
ages, sects, and parties." The League publishes a series of books, 
information regarding which may be had by addressing the presi- 
dent, 340 West Duval St., Germantown, Penn. 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 285 

excludes the teaching of civics as one of its aims. 
The motto is: Government of the pupils, by the 
pupils, for the pupils; and the intention is to shift 
a large share of the responsibility from the teacher 
to the pupils. It provides for the monthly election 
of a tribune in each room, who shall be the official 
spokesman of that room, receiving complaints, in- 
vestigating the same, and eventually reporting them 
to the teacher. The tribunes from all the classes 
constitute the School Council. In general, pupils are 
held responsible for their own and others' conduct. 

In the Arsenal School, Hartford, Conn., there is 
a somewhat similar plan, which will be found 
described in Bagley, " Class-room Management," 
p. 291. 

A concise argument for the general proposition 
of pupil self-government is given by Superintendent 
Maxwell: 1 "The temptation is always present, 
and is generally overwhelming, for the child culprit 
who suffers punishment ... at the hands of an 
autocratic authority such as the principal or the 
teacher, to pose as a hero or a martyr. If, however, 
the same punishment were inflicted by a jury of his 
peers, the consolation of strutting as a hero or posing 

1 Annual Report, 1905, p. 121. 



286 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

as a martyr would be entirely removed. The efficacy 
of the punishment would be reenforced by the whole 
strength of the public opinion of the class or the 
school. The ridicule or the pity of his fellows is 
what the child finds it hardest to endure and what 
he will strive most earnestly to avoid. In this 
psychological fact lies the chief reason for the suc- 
cess, such as it is, that has attended the different 
forms of pupil self-government that have been tried 
at various times in the history of education. Add to 
this, that the exercise of governmental powers by 
the pupils in the administration of a school is an 
excellent training in executive ability and an unsur- 
passed preparation for the duties of citizenship, and 
an exceedingly strong case is made out in favor of 
pupil self-government. " 

There is also something to be said on the other 
side of the subject. There is danger of overdoing 
any system of this sort to the extent that low motives 
of desire for "show" are being employed. Pupils 
should be brought to behave themselves without 
any "display" of good behavior. Reduced to its 
lowest terms, any plan of this kind is a form of 
monitorial supervision, and as such shares the dis- 
advantages of the monitorial system. 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 287 

Louisville settles the question of monitors thus : " Pupils 
shall not at any time be required or permitted to act as 
monitors." — Manual, Sec. 2, Rule 18. 

Richmond restricts their use (Rule 50) to certain helpful 
duties unrelated to supervision of other pupils. 

Worcester, Mass., provides: "No monitor shall be 
appointed to act in any capacity in any school building, 
except in such instances as the Superintendent may, in 
the exercise of his judgment, deem desirable." — Regula- 
tions, Chapter IV, Sec. 23. 

In an eighth year class of boys in a New York City 
school where there is no system of monitors, 42 out of 
46 voted against the establishment of any such system. 
Some of the reasons are here quoted in their pristine 
but forceful simplicity : — 

"Boys learn to be more trustworthy without them." 

"Boys are apt to behave themselves only when the 
monitors are there." 

"Monitor might have a grudge against some boy, 
etc. . . ." 

"Pupils get jealous of monitors. . . ." 

"Boys ought to learn to take care of themselves." 

"Causes ill-feeling between boys." 

"Monitor can't fight a big boy, and if he reports him 
he gets him outside. ..." 

"Some monitors go a little too far and think they are 
It. . . ." 

"If his friends do anything, he doesn't report it. . . ." 



288 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

But lying deeper than this criticism is the question 
as to what constitutes self-government. We must 
all believe in self-government; indeed we might 
stretch its definition so that it should be synonymous 
with Education itself. At least, for each individual 
to learn the great secret of self-government, to learn 
to control himself in every direction, is the great aim 
of moral education. But do these " systems" of 
self-government teach ^//-government ; do they 
not rather teach each pupil to govern the other 
pupil? Which is the greater education, for a man 
to learn to obey the law because he must, per- 
force, or to learn to do right regardless of statutory 
requirements ? 

There is yet another phase to the subject, and 
that is the administrative problem. It is admitted 
that any "plan" needs constant supervision by 
teachers and principal. Hence we must estimate 
the entries on both sides of the energy account and 
figure the balance. 

The teaching of civics, at least as much as the 
pupil can understand, is readily accomplished 
without the aid of any formal pupil-government 
schemes. The class-room discipline does not need 
reenforcement by a uniform school plan: the indi- 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 289 

vidual teacher, if excellent, will have good order 
without recourse to an artificial motive of this kind, 
or if she wishes to use one can well initiate and 
administer her own plan; if not a satisfactory 
teacher, and if she cannot secure class-room order 
without a superimposed plan, she is not likely to get 
it with such a plan. 

There remains to be considered the conduct of 
pupils when left alone in their rooms and when on 
corridors and stairways. There is always the danger 
of accident to pupils in their school life, and at such 
a time the monitorial system is highly unsatisfactory. 
To illustrate, suppose a boy falls downstairs at a 
dismissal and is seriously injured. Such an acci- 
dent is likely to happen under whatever system of 
supervision may be employed, but it is the school 
which is held responsible by the parents. The 
father calls at the school to investigate. The princi- 
pal must send for the person who was responsible 
for the supervision of the pupils as they were dis- 
missed. Under a pupil -government system, that 
person proves to be a twelve-year-old boy; and the 
principal explains to the parent that the boys were 
"governing themselves." Might not the parent 
reasonably take exception to the condition? Under 



290 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

the teacher-government system the person who 
appears is a responsible adult, a paid employee, a 
person in a position of authoritative supervision. 1 
The assurance to the parent that the accident to the 
child was unavoidable, and occurred in spite of the 
most careful prevision and supervision by legally 
constituted school authorities, would tend to allay 
any feeling of animosity which the father had 
brought with him. 

The problem, then, from the administrative point 
of view, would seem to reduce itself to this: Any 
scheme of pupil government requires the expense 
of a large amount of supervisory energy by princi- 
pal and teachers ; the chief, if not the sole, practical 
income from such a scheme is a monitorial super- 
vision of the school territory outside the class room ; 
question — Does the income exceed the expense ? 

2. Attendance and Punctuality 

One of the ever-present duties of the principal is 
to secure proper attendance and punctuality on the 

1 Cf. "Principals . . . shall require the teachers to take such 
charge of pupils while passing through the halls and on the stair- 
ways, and during recess, as may in their judgment be considered best 
for the protection and care of the pupils and the discipline of the 
school." — Philadelphia, Rules, XVII, Sec. 3. 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 291 

part of pupils. The importance of constant attend- 
ance is so clearly recognized by most principals 
and by all writers on administration that nothing 
need be said here on that score. What is needed 
perhaps is a word of caution to the effect that absence 
may be too severely emphasized, particularly in the 
case of higher grade girls (see p. 164). 

Regular attendance should, of course, be secured 
by the pupil's liking for school; in the early years 
chiefly for its immediate interests, but later in 
response to a sense of duty, in realization of the 
value of education and his obligations to society. 
The pupil must feel that absence from school is a 
loss, his loss ; and part of the duty of the principal 
is to make his school something that pupils cannot 
afford to lose. 

But even with the most attractive of schools, 
using the word attractive in its best and broadest 
sense, many pupils will be unnecessarily absent and 
tardy. It then becomes a matter of discipline, and 
as such must be governed by the law of growth. 
At first, the attendance of the child is a matter of 
obedience: he must go to school. If in no other 
way, he must be brought daily by some one at home, 
until the habit of school-going has been established. 



292 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

Later, he will attend as a matter of reason: he 
ought to go to school. 

Lateness for younger pupils is usually the fault of 
the parents, whose cooperation must be secured; 
for older pupils it can be made a matter of duty, 1 
and with them the emphasis may be placed upon 
the training for life, and especially for business. 

Louisville provides : "Any pupil who shall not be pres- 
ent punctually . . . before being allowed to take his place 
in his class shall, if the principal request it, present an 
excuse signed by the parent or guardian stating the cause 
of tardiness." — Manual, Sec. 5, Rule 6. It would seem, 
however, that no pupil should ever be excluded from the 
school building for lateness, either by rule or by spirit; 
the stimuli to truancy are sufficiently plentiful without 
adding this one. 

Many forms of notes to apply to attendance and punc- 
tuality could be devised, but local conditions will so far 
govern the exact wording as to make inadvisable the sug- 
gestion of more than the following : — 

1 "First of all, the children must be taught the moral wrong of 
want of punctuality." — Levi Seeley, "A New School Manage- 
ment," New York, 1903, p. 106. 

" The child should very early form the habit of meeting every 
engagement promptly, and there is no way to form this habit 
save by making tardiness a serious offense." — Bagley, " Class- 
room Management," p. 77. 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 293 



Public School No. 100, 
Broadway and Fulton St., 

New York, 190. 



M_. 



Dear : 

I am sorry to inform you that 

has been late times this 

By seeing that ___he is punctual in the future, you will 

obli S e > Respectfully, 



Principal 



Public School No. 100, 
Broadway and Fulton St., 

New York, 190- 



M____. 
Dear 



has been late times in 

the last weeks. 

It is extremely important that the habit of punctuality 
shall become fixed in a pupil's school life. Will you there- 
fore kindly cooperate with us in our efforts to secure 

._ 's punctual attendance. 

Respectfully, 

Principal 



294 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 
(For New York State) 

Public School No. ioo, 
Broadway and Fulton St., 

New York, 190- 

M 



Deae : 

's school attendance has been very irregu- 
lar during the past 

According to our records, ___he will soon be four- 
teen years old. If you intend to put h at work when 

___he is fourteen, it will be necessary for h to attend 

more regularly. Under the law, ____he must have 
attended school at least one hundred thirty (130) days 
since h thirteenth birthday before ___he can obtain an 

employment certificate. 

Respectfully, 



Principal 



Many schemes for securing attendance and punc- 
tuality are variously popular. To appeal to class 
spirit and to class rivalry is a favorite method ; to 
designate by some decoration, a flag, for example, 
the class having perfect attendance and punctuality 
is another ; and so on : such plans usually produce 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 295 

results, but even in their use there should be a con- 
stant struggle to get away from this to some higher 
motive. 

By some it is thought logical to reward a class 
which has made a record for a stated period by dis- 
missing those pupils some minutes earlier on the 
last day of the period ; but it would seem as though 
such a reward were based upon a wrong conception 
of school. Shall we encourage pupils to regard 
school as something to be avoided, and exemption 
from participation in school exercises something 
to be desired and striven for? Would it not be 
more logical to reward all pupils who have met the 
condition of a perfect record in attendance — or, 
in fact, any other desirable condition — with the 
privilege of remaining beyond the time of the regular 
school session? It would be a poor teacher indeed 
who could not make an extra half hour or hour, 
once a month, so interesting that pupils would 
strive to earn the privilege of sharing it with her. 

But with all our efforts we will still have baffling 
cases of willful, persistent absence which we call 
truancy. Compulsory education laws in most States 
provide attendance officers whose duty it is to carry 



296 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

the authority of the State on behalf of the school 
into the homes and on the streets in a search for and 
capture of truants. Thus the principal usually has 
certain definite duties of cooperation with these 
officers, varying in the different States, so that his 
broad pedagogic treatment of truancy will neces- 
sarily be colored by the local law. Among the 
general propositions may be noted the follow- 
ing:— 

1. Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom from 
extensive truancy. Teachers must be trained to 
notify parents promptly of absence of pupils and to 
secure satisfactory excuses from pupils upon their 
return ; 1 they would better err on the safe side, and 
be overcareful than not cautious enough. They 
must feel their responsibility, and not permit unex- 
plained absence to run without reporting it. 

1 Mandatory in some cities, e.g. Providence: "Each pupil who 
shall be absent from school, shall, on his return, bring to the teacher 
a written excuse from his parent or guardian for such absence." — 
Rules, Art. XI, Sec. 9. The Rochester rule is particularly stringent : 
"No mere statement that the parent has kept the pupil at home shall 
be accepted by the teacher as an excuse for absence; and, unless it 
shall appear that the pupil has been detained by sickness, or some 
other urgent reason, which would render attendance impossible, or 
which would cause a serious and imprudent exposure of health, the 
excuse shall not be deemed satisfactory." — Art. Ill, Pupils. 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 297 

2. To deal effectively with the truant, the princi- 
pal must sympathize with him and understand his 
attitude. 

It is certainly not difficult to understand the truant. 
Two factors enter into the make-up of the human indi- 
vidual, heredity and environment. 

Heredity is twofold, general and special. 

In general, the boy inherits from centuries of the race 
the nomadic instinct. For millions of years his ancestors 
were living out of doors ; it is for but a comparatively 
brief period that any of them have been going to school. 
The "natural" instinct, then, is to listen to the call of the 
wild ; the call to the schoolroom is purely a conventional 
one. What is more natural than that a child, even though 
he has been drilled for several years in the conventional 
habit of school-going, should occasionally lapse into the 
ancestral state for a day or two ? Indeed, what adult is 
there with red blood in his circulation, who does not at 
some time rebel against the restraints of that conventional- 
ism which, as Dr. Van Dyke says, "transforms the rhythm 
of life into a logarithm." 

But, specifically, the boy has a more immediate inherit- 
ance which may make or mar his natural equipment. A 
very few generations of ill-nurtured or disease-succumbing 
parents suffice to launch the child into life with a severe 
handicap in the form of serious physical defects. To per- 
sist in going to school when school offers no appeal, and 
when to stay out of doors is to follow the path of least 



298 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

resistance, demands of a boy a certain amount of dynamic 
force. When, however, the immediate inheritance of the 
child is a defective body and unresisting mind, the result 
is a mental inertia which must be overcome before the 
conventional school can hold him against the natural 
out of doors. 1 

The environment factor is manifold, but chiefly, for 
the truant, it is of the home and of the school, and it be- 
hooves us to consider both. The home conditions may 
be squalid and the home forces may be against the in- 
fluence of the school and in favor of driving the boy to the 
bad. On the other hand, the school itself, at least the 
particular class and teacher that represent the school 
environment of the truant, may be such as to repel rather 
than attract. 

All of these factors must be given consideration by the 
principal in dealing with the individual truant before he 
can meet him on a basis of sympathetic understanding. 
If the truant feels that the principal knows what he is 
"up against, " he is much more likely to listen to argument 
and appeal. 

3. If the principal can get into sympathetic rela- 
tions with one truant, he can often successfully use 
him as a means of influence with other truants, for 

1 "How hard it is to be civilized and how easy it is to be primitive 
and brutal is only thoroughly appreciated by those who have slipped 
from the plane of humanity and are painfully struggling to climb 
back." — Bagley, "Educative Process," p. 102. 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 299 

it must be remembered that the truant rarely travels 
alone. 

4. " Discipline" cases of pupils inclined to tru- 
ancy must be handled with particular skill, lest in 
reaching a lesser offense the pupil is prompted to 
commit a greater. 

3. Habits and Ideals 

We have defined discipline as the process which 
leads the individual to do right, and we have applied 
the term to manners and to morals. It would be 
possible, though fruitless, to draw fine distinctions 
between manners and morals ; but from the practical 
pedagogic standpoint the two are inevitably inter- 
dependent. For the child, morals is largely a matter 
of manners; for the intelligent adult, manners is 
largely a matter of morals. Hence, while we would 
make the adult mannerly through his moral sense, 
we reach the young child's morals largely through 
his manners. We have, therefore, a deep reason for 
teaching manners, — as a means to moral ends, — 
as well as the important reason of teaching them for 
their own intrinsic value. 

To run the gamut from manners to morals, is 
to go from the mere social conventions such as 



300 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

salutations, public deportment, table etiquette, and 
the like, through the hygienic requirements of 
cleanliness, exercise, sleep, posture, dress, and so 
on, up to the recognized commandments as to truth- 
telling, chastity, and reverence. The law of growth 
must be here recognized: as the pupil grows out 
from under dogmatic government up to self-govern- 
ment, from obedience perforce to obedience to 
right, he will find for both his manners and his 
morals increasingly intelligent motives. Neverthe- 
less, the aim of disciplinary education is to convert 
all these virtues into habits, so that politeness, 
cleanliness, and honesty equally become automatic 
expressions of a symmetrically developed character. 
The initial influence of the home upon these habits 
is not to be underestimated, but it is doubtful whether 
we should assume that they are irrevocably settled 
in the first six years of the child's life — that "the 
question of submission or lawlessness, of truthful- 
ness or falsehood, of deceit or honesty, is decided 
... for most children, before they are supposed 
capable of understanding it." * Be this as it may, 
the school still must both strengthen the good habits 

George Howland, "Practical Hints for the Teachers of Public 
Schools," New York, 1896, p. 5. 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 301 

it finds and combat the wrong ones, whatever their 
origin and whatever the force of other influences. 

This puts a large duty upon the principal, some 
phases of which are here summarized : — 

1. "The order, the industry, and the culture 
of our schools, though indirect and often unconscious, 
are yet efficient and ever-present moral influences, 
which we cannot well overestimate." 1 Granting 
this, it is evidently incumbent upon the principal 
to develop in his school a maximum of morally 
effective order, industry, and culture. 

2. Teachers must be impressed with the duty of 
the school to inculcate good habits in manners and 
morals. Discipline of pupils, meaning their training 
to do right, is frequently construed by the teacher to 
mean training them to do what she wants them 
to do. If her wants are broadly intelligent, all is 
well; but many teachers attend chiefly or solely to 
those habits which most directly affect the pupils' 
accomplishment of intellectual tasks. It is quite 
possible for a boy with soiled hands and face to 
master his geography lesson; a girl can write an 
interesting composition regardless of careless coiffure 

1 Ibid., p. 8, though apparently inconsistent with the previous 
quotation. 



302 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

or slovenly attire; a pupil who is daily becoming 
more and more of a liar can yet do keen work in 
arithmetic; and so the teacher may overlook the 
moral in her education of the intellectual. 1 It is 
the business of the principal not alone to emphasize 
the work of moral education, but also to be careful 
not to nullify this emphasis by holding the teacher 
and her class too constantly to purely intellectual 
standards. To preach to teachers the necessity for 
moral training, and then to rate them solely on the 
absolute results their classes show on written ex- 
aminations, is to make a pretence and a farce of 
character building. 

3. Good habits, it scarce need be said, must be 
taught first of all by example. The Rules of the 
Cleveland Board of Education put it well: "It 
shall be a duty of the first importance on the part of 
teachers to be models in personal appearance and 
in conduct, for the pupils under their care. They 
are especially enjoined to avail themselves of every 
opportunity to inculcate neatness, promptness, polite- 

x "The school should produce in its pupils nothing of shyness, 
insincerity, deception, meanness, selfishness, dishonesty, untruthful- 
ness, or laziness. These, as well as all other vices, are developed 
by practice." — Larkin Dunton, "Education," February, 1892, 
P- 327- 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 303 

ness, cheerfulness, truthfulness, patriotism, and all 
the virtues which contribute to the effectiveness of 
the schools, the good order of society, and the safety 
of our American citizenship." 

4. The establishment and sustenance of moral 
habits is dependent upon the development of proper 
ideals. As "the emotional element is dominant," 
and as "art, literature (including poetry, the drama, 
and fiction), music, and religion are the great media 
for the transmission of ideals and as such fulfill an 
educative function far more fundamental than our 
didactic pedagogy has ever realized," 1 it is evident 
that this phase of the school life must be deliberately 
enforced and constantly reenforced. One of the 
most potent ideals developable in school is that of 
esprit de corps; so important is it, that it seems to 
merit discussion as a separate topic. 

4. School Spirit 

"In the school of to-day feeling and sentiment are 
to be cultivated no less than thought and expression." 2 
"Perhaps the best check to vice and the largest 
incentive to virtue is the public opinion of the child's 

1 Bagley, "Educative Process," p. 224. 
2 Dutton, "School Management," p. 5. 



304 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

friends and associates. This esprit de corps is the 
teacher's strongest lever in promoting efficiency 
and good government among the boys and girls. 
To utilize this lever requires oversight and guidance, 
but it must not be obtrusive nor overapparent to 
the child." 1 This esprit de corps, school atmos- 
phere, pride in the school and thought for its name 
and honor, is not to be gained in a day. It must 
become a matter of tradition and, once established, 
be handed down from one set of pupils to another. 
The influence of the older pupils upon the younger; 
of the graduates of the school upon their younger 
brothers and sisters, and their friends ; of the parents 
and other citizens in the community, — all this is 
of immense direct value in its effect upon the con- 
duct of pupils. It counts for much if the parents 
advise their friends, "Get your boy into No. ioo if 
you can; it is a great school;" if the alumni think 
that it is a special honor to graduate from the school ; 
and if the older pupils correct the young offenders 
in the name of the school. 

This traditional school spirit may be developed 
through many agencies : — 

i. The teachers in the class room may at every 

Arthur Deerin Call, "Education," January, 1907, p. 260. 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 305 

convenient opportunity hold before the pupils stirring 
examples of loyalty, of " team-work," of sacrifice, 
as discovered in history, geography, and literature, 
occasionally leading the pupils along the direct 
inference as to the necessity for school spirit. 

2. The school assembly is a valuable aid in fixing 
ideals, and particularly this one of esprit de corps. 
"A few words in the assembly room may strike home 
with telling effect. . . . The sentiment of the mass 
sweeps the individual before it." * The schemes 
for making the assembly an occasion of profit and 
interest and the means for the cultivation of ideals 
are innumerable. A few are here noted suggestively : 

(1) Recitations by pupils. Avoid show work of the 
gifted; better the successful effort of the diffident 
pupil to overcome his embarrassment than the ex- 
ploitation of the students specially trained in elocu- 
tion. In subject-matter, keep closely to the regular 
work of the classes. There is ample material that 
relates to or supplements the subjects of study, 
without bringing in popular recitation "pieces." 

(2) Discussions by pupils of current events. (3) 
Studies of pictures and other objects of art. 

*Mr. Smiley, Proceedings, National Educational Association, 
1896, p. 598. 



306 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

(4) Musical studies of all kinds, again omitting dis- 
proportionate individual exploitation. (5) Celebra- 
tion of special days, such as birthdays, battle days, 
anniversaries of inventions, discoveries, etc. (6) 
Flag drill and other distinctively patriotic exercises. 
(7) Outside speakers. Not every one can talk in- 
terestingly to children, but there are many who can 
bring to the pupils words of practical everyday 
wisdom and inspiration. 

Cf., "No person shall be allowed to address any school, 
except the superintendent and members of the com- 
mittee, and those invited by them." — Providence, By- 
Laws, Art. XVII, Sec. 4. 

3. School athletics, especially those branches 
which develop team play, may, if properly organized 
and carefully supervised, promote physical develop- 
ment, reenforce the scholastic effort of pupils, and 
stimulate school spirit. " Every one believes that 
ample opportunity for physical exercise should be 
afforded all school children, but there are limits to 
the indulgence of this taste, and it is important that 
neither the moral standards of the participants should 
be debased by improper practices nor should their 
health be impaired by overexertion. Neither should 
athletics be allowed to assume too important a place 



THE PUPILS' MORAL DEVELOPMENT 307 

in the minds of the pupils to the disadvantage of 
academic subjects." ' 

4. Organization of the pupils within the school, 
along somewhat social lines, may be possible under 
certain conditions, and thus contribute to school 
spirit. Musical clubs, literary societies, scientific 
meetings, and so on, practically without limit, are 
all within the range of possibility. It is wise, how- 
ever, not to permit too great a diversity of interest 
and dissipation of energy. 

5. A school journal may, with supervisory aid, be 
conducted by pupil editors and managers, and give 
a legitimate expression to intelligent interest on behalf 
of a large number of pupils. A sufficient amount of 
advertising matter can usually be secured by a little 
enterprise to support the publication of such a paper. 

6. An enthusiastic alumni association can give 
material support to a school. It is better to have no 
association, however, than to have one that is weak 
or uninterested in the school itself. In a new school, 
an association can be organized with the first class 
to graduate. The principal may inspire this organi- 
zation and for a while direct its energies, but as the 

1 Annual Report of the School Committee of the City of Boston, 
1906, p. 34. 



308 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

years go on, he should gradually withdraw his 
prompting, leaving the work to be done entirely by 
the graduates themselves. They may give material 
donations to the school from time to time; but 
nothing of this kind, excellent as it is, can equal in 
value the intangible moral influence of an organized 
body of alumni who themselves reflect the high ideals 
of a school which has won their devotion and loyalty. 



CHAPTER X 

THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PRINCIPALSHIP 

It remains only to consider the principal himself 
and his personal relation to his office. This will be 
done under four heads : (i) his qualifications for the 
office ; * (2) his adjustment to his position ; (3) his 
personal growth; (4) the position itself. 

1. The Qualifications for the Office 

Every principal should be an excellent teacher; 
he should have had actual experience as a class 
teacher — this is imperative. However scholarly he 
may be, however sincere and earnest, the principal 
who has never held the position of class teacher 
cannot put himself in the teacher's place. He may 
delude himself into thinking that by his sporadic 
visits to the class room, or even by " taking a class" 

1 As this chapter goes to press there appears an inspiring article 
on "The Equipment of the School Principal," by Frederic Ernest 
Farrington, Educational Review, January, 1908, p. 41. Professor 
Farrington chooses as the most important qualifications : 1. schol- 
arly attainments, 2. teaching skill, 3. executive ability, 4. a strong 
and attractive personality, 5. the capacity for growth. 

309 



310 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

for a long period, he is getting the view point of the 
teacher, but he is not ; and without this view point 
he lacks the basis for sympathetic and effective 
supervision. 

The principal should be all that the teacher is, 
and more ; he must have teaching ability plus ex- 
ecutive ability. Those teachers who have natural 
organizing and administrative aptitude, and those 
who, though lacking this yet feel capable of acquir- 
ing it, should seek their promotion along the lines 
leading to the executive positions. But teachers 
who do not fall readily into either of these classes 
should direct their efforts to preparing themselves 
for the teaching positions of the higher ranks, to the 
end that they may be the happier and the school 
system the stronger. 

Executive ability for the principal is the generic 
ability which would apply equally well to the com- 
mand of a regiment and to the superintendency of 
a factory, together with the specific ability to adapt 
the general principles to the administration of a 
school. 

The executive in any office should possess (i) good 
working habits, (2) a grasp of detail, (3) a sense of 
proportion, (4) system, (5) certain personal virtues. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PRINCIPALSHIP 311 

These will be considered in order, and in their special 
application to the work of the principal. 

1. Good Working Habits. — Chief of these are 
promptness, speed, and accuracy. The principal 
must attend to his work promptly and turn it off 
rapidly in order that he may get it done; and he 
must do it accurately in order that he may not have 
to do it over again. The work of a hat factory is 
tangible and definite; the aim is to turn out so 
many hats in a given time at a minimum expense. 
The work of a school is tangible only in part; the 
aim is not, as many would have us believe, to turn 
out so many pupils in a given time at a minimum 
expense, but rather, in a given time, to render to 
pupils a maximum service, regardless of expense. 
The element of time enters into the calculations of 
both the factory and the school. In either case it is 
a constant and measurable factor. But beyond this 
there is a decided difference between the two prob- 
lems: hats may be counted and the ratio of hats 
to minutes determined ; but education and minutes 
are incommensurable. That is to say, the hat 
maker, working with increased rapidity and ac- 
curacy, computes his gain in hats; the principal, 
improving his habits of speed and accuracy, makes 



312 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

gains uncounted and uncountable. There is a 
limit to the profit in the things called hats ; there is 
no limit to the profit in the things of the spirit. 
Therefore the principal owes it to the large inter- 
ests of his work to give unstinted effort to the per- 
fecting of his working habits. He will apply to 
himself for the development of these habits the same 
psychology which he applies to pupils for the mech- 
anizing of their habits; and with this simple but 
sufficient thought we may leave the subject. 

2. A Grasp of Detail. — This, in effect, means a 
good memory, together with a well -developed ability 
to forget. The principal must note and recall, when 
necessary, the whole gamut of minor matters which, 
combined, form the life of his school. But it is 
equally important that these details should not 
depress him, or even impress him except in his 
marginal consciousness. In giving over the direct 
supervision of many of these details to his sub- 
ordinates, he will retain a certain oversight of them 
which does not lead him into petty interference, but 
which does reenforce the attention given to them by 
his assistants; to sustain a delicate balance in this 
phase of the administrative problem is indeed a fine 
art. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PRINCIPALSHIP 313 

3. A Sense of Proportion. — An elaboration of 
this theme could well lead us into the exploitation of 
a philosophy of life. A lack of a sense of proportion, 
all too common a trait among people otherwise very 
estimable, whereby one attempts to repair a watch 
with a crowbar or to remove a mountain with an 
orange spoon, is disastrous in any walk of life ; and 
particularly so in an executive position. The prin- 
cipal whose chief concern is to ring electric bells, 
carry messages from room to room, or file reports 
that are models of the engrosser's art, may be very 
sincere, very industrious, and, in a way, very suc- 
cessful; but he certainly is inefficient as compared 
with the intelligent and well-proportioned supervisor. 
In the large, two converse principles will control the 
principal's administration: (1) never to do himself 
what some one else will do just as well as he, and 
(2) to concern himself mainly with those things 
which he alone can do, or which he can do better 
than others. He must do the important things, even 
if many matters intrinsically serious but relatively 
unimportant have to wait or even have to be neglected 
entirely. If there are not important things for him 
to do which he alone is fitted to do, then either he or 
his school is in a sad state. The practical applica- 



314 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

tion of these two principles leads immediately to a 
consideration of the fourth qualification. 

4. System. — The principal's intention to do 
things proportionately can gain concrete expression 
only by the use of system. This subject has been 
discussed apologetically (p. 4), and has been ex- 
emplified at many points throughout the extended 
discussion of technical details. In saving himself 
for the important duties, the principal will put as 
much of his routine as possible upon others. If a 
twelve-year-old girl is available who can push electric- 
bell buttons, if a ten-year-old boy can carry a message 
from room to room, if a teacher can compile a statis- 
tical report, it is wanton waste for the principal to put 
his energies into such directions. If he has super- 
visory or clerical assistants, it is easy for him to get 
relief from routine; if not, it can yet be secured if 
he will but prove to his teachers that he can help 
them far better by being freed from clerical and 
routine duties than by performing them himself. 
He ought to be able to show any teacher that if she 
will volunteer to act as his clerical assistant for, say, 
an hour a week outside her regular time, he will be 
free to help her in her work to such an extent as to 
make such service more than amply repaid. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PRINCIPALSHIP 315 

To perform the mechanical work of his school the 
principal must make as perfect a machine as pos- 
sible: not because of admiration for machinery as 
such, but because of the broadening work which such 
mechanizing makes possible. A machine is not 
easy to build, but it should be easy to run. The 
school which requires the hand of the principal un- 
ceasingly on the helm is sailing too close to the wind. 
Occasional absence of the principal should not make 
a ripple on the surface of the school life. This im- 
plies that the principal understudies his own position 
and those of his associates. For instance, on occa- 
sion he will deliberately neglect certain duties which 
he ordinarily performs, seeing to it that they are 
properly attended to by some one else ; then when he 
is necessarily off duty, the work of the school proceeds 
automatically. 

Much of the time which the principal gains by sys- 
tem he will spend in class-room work. There are 
several reasons why he should get into the class 
room and teach. We have already considered three 
of them, namely: (1) to discover the work of the 
teacher; (2) to discover the bright or exceptional 
pupil whom the teacher, through daily familiarity, 
is less apt to note; (3) to give a "model" lesson. 



316 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

To be added to these are other arguments: (4) it 
gives him the opportunity of maintaining his tech- 
nical skill. Without practice he will cease to be an 
excellent teacher, and he should be such to the end 
of his career. (5) It helps him to maintain his 
sympathy for the teacher and her problems. This 
sympathetic understanding must be kept nourished 
to the point of fruitage. (6) It results favorably to 
the pupils by introducing them to variety, and in 
some cases, superiority; and by increasing the feel- 
ing of personal friendship between principal and 
pupils. (7) It relieves him from the monotony of 
office work. In the first months in his new position, 
he may welcome the change from his class-room ex- 
perience; but as he familiarizes himself with his 
work, the administrative office routine becomes 
tedious and deadening unless relieved by constant 
association in the class room with teachers and 
pupils. 

5. Certain personal traits, which, though chiefly 
dependent upon innate character, if lacking, may 
yet be acquired, or if weakly present, may be 
materially strengthened. The personal character- 
istics that make up the excellent teacher must be a 
prime possession of the principal. But as the prin- 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PRINCIPALSHIP 317 

cipal has to meet situations unknown to the teacher, 
solve problems which are never presented to her, 
deal with people to an extent that she is not called 
upon to do, so must the principal have highly de- 
veloped the special virtues of courtesy and courage. 
Courtesy, for the principal, must include true 
kindness and the equable temper which is unbroken 
by the severest strains, so that his attitude toward 
pupils, teachers, and others shall be the same yester- 
day, to-day, and to-morrow; and further, it will 
be at once the cause and the effect of rational 
patience and true sympathy. Courage, for him, will 
be the outward expression of an innate and basic 
integrity, operating positively through firmness and 
negatively through reserve. 

2. His Adjustment to His Position 

The adjustment of the principal to his principal- 
ship will be accomplished in either of two ways, 
according to whether he is appointed to organize a 
new school, or to succeed a competent principal in 
the management of an already established school. 
In the one case, he must pursue a policy of masterly 
activity; in the other, one of artistic inactivity. 

To organize a new school will demand painstaking 



318 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

planning and energetic execution. As much of the 
organizing as is possible should be done before the 
pupils appear for admission : the selection of teach- 
ers, their assignments to grades and rooms and to 
duties outside the class rooms, the delivery of sup- 
plies, the outlining of at least the first few weeks of 
work, the publication of a few well-considered rules, 
etc. It is better to organize along all of these lines 
tentatively, even if many changes have to be made 
later, than to postpone planning until there is the 
added problem of actually having the pupils on hand. 
The principal will gain the respect and confidence 
of his teachers through his evident command of the 
many difficulties involved. They will be conscious 
of his mastery of the situation and will follow his 
leadership willingly and faithfully. His influence 
with the pupils will soon be felt, and the entire school 
will become the expression of his thought and his 
ideals. 

Quite different from this is the problem of the prin- 
cipal who begins his work in a well-organized school 
as the successor of a respected principal. It will be 
a serious and far-reaching mistake for him to attempt 
to gain control by strenuous remodeling of the school 
to conform with his ideas. Teachers especially are 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PRINCIPALSHIP 319 

fearful of change ; if they have adjusted themselves 
to the methods, requirements, and ideals of a prin- 
cipal whom they admire, they will react resentfully 
toward a rough and sudden overthrow of their 
accustomed system. Whether or not the new regime 
is more able or more just, has little to do with it; 
the mere fact of ruthless change will stir the teachers 
to an extent that it will take years to overcome. 
Hence the principal will proceed cautiously. Even 
if the school, according to his judgment, has been 
woefully mismanaged by his predecessor, he must 
remember that it has pulled along for some time 
and a few weeks more can make no great difference. 
The best that the new principal can do is to spend 
several weeks in patient but keen observation of 
conditions, studying appreciatively the good points 
of the prevailing system, attempting to administer de- 
tails as nearly as may be in accord with the methods 
of his predecessor, and, in general, convincing the 
teachers that, after all, he is harmless. In time, one 
after another of them will come to view him as con- 
servative, will note his ability in his settlement of 
daily difficulties, will regard him as thoroughly com- 
petent, and will be anxious to follow his leadership. 
Then, and then only, can he begin to reconstruct 



320 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

according to his own notions ; for then will his sub- 
ordinates carry out his instructions intelligently, 
eagerly, and helpfully. This, to the new principal, 
looks like a programme of delay, and in following it he 
is inclined to chafe under the restraints which it im- 
poses upon his initiative; but in reality it is a pro- 
gramme which, in the end, gains time immeasurably 
for the effective accomplishment of his purposes. 
With his teachers with him at last, he can, in a 
week, make transformations, install a system, and 
institute experiments, work that it would take years 
of struggle to accomplish were his teachers in a state 
of passive indifference or studied opposition. 

3. His Personal Growth 

"In the case of the teacher highest in his profes- 
sion, we believe this rule will always be found to 
apply: he is intent upon improving himself and his 
pupils, physically, mentally, morally. ... In ac- 
complishing this, he is more desirous of remedying 
his own defects than in displaying his own virtues." * 
The principal will not permit himself to remain at 
any one level, however high it may be, but will con- 
sistently and conscientiously study to refresh and 

1 Hyland C. Kirk, "Education," June, 1891, p. 600. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PRINCIPALSHIP 321 

replenish the sources of his own personality. His 
personal growth will take place along two main 
lines : professional development and general culture. 

It has all along been assumed that the principal 
is prepared for his work, although no preparation can 
ever be regarded as completed. He must be conscious 
of the defects in his original preparation and study 
to remedy them. The very exercise of his specific 
school duties in the spirit of honest endeavor will 
overcome many of those defects, but he must not 
be content with this measure of correction. Educa- 
tion is science, and we are told that the scientist 
must burn his books every decade; the principal 
must deliberately keep pace with the advancement 
in the science of education by systematic reading, 
study, and independent thinking. Education is art, 
and art is nourished by inspiration; the principal 
must seek the companionship of his fellow-artists 
and profit by their influence and the work of their 
hands. 1 

The principal's professional competency must 
emerge from a background of general culture. He 
must be more than a scientist in education ; he must 

1 Milwaukee allows a principal five days per year for the visitation 
of other schools; Minneapolis, five days; New York, three days; etc. 

Y 



322 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

relate his science to the whole body of organized 
knowledge, becoming a thoughtful student of the 
science of sciences, which is philosophy. 1 He must 
be more than an artist in education; he must relate 
his art to its fellow-arts and crafts, so that he never 
ceases to be a man among men. The most serious 
reproach made of school men is that they are pedantic 
and provincial; the principal must fulfill his "gen- 
eral" obligations to society the while he seeks the 
beneficent attrition which accompanies association 
with men of other arts, of other crafts, of other 
professions, with men of breadth, of balance, of 
energy, of purpose, and of accomplishment. 

4. The Position 

"In almost every aspect, except that of salary, the 

principalship of a school is the most desirable of all 

educational positions, unless one desires to pursue 

in a professorship some particular line of study." 2 

1 "To be an educator is not, then, to be a man merely conversant 
with the customs and conventionalities of the schoolroom. It is to 
be a man with a defensible social creed. . . . Unless we are coura- 
geous enough to work back to this firm ground, the philosophic idea, 
we can have no assured position on any question of human import, 
and surely nothing to say about education that will be at all worth 
saying." — C. Hanford Henderson, "Education and the Larger 
Life," Boston, 1902, p. 6. 2 Chancellor, op. cit.,p. 176. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PRINCIPALSHIP 323 

Let us consider the main proposition of this state- 
ment, together with the two exceptions noted, begin- 
ning with the exceptions. 

"Except that of salary." The phrase should be 
frankly and seriously considered by every one who 
contemplates enlisting in the service of education. 
As financial advancement for elementary school 
teachers lies mainly along the line of promotion into 
the principalships, and as positions of greater re- 
muneration are few and far between, the real ques- 
tion for the teaching aspirant is : Can I be satisfied 
with the salary of a principalship as the maximum of 
my financial reward? The salaries of principals 
vary greatly in different cities and towns, according 
to the local cost of living, the size of the schools 
and the consequent responsibility involved, and the 
standard of qualifications for the position. As com- 
pared with the financial returns in other vocations, 
it must be admitted that the average income of edu- 
cators is considerably less than that of the other 
workers, except the ministers. 

The returns from graduates of Bowdoin College, col- 
lected by President Hyde, 1 are probably typical. He found 

1 William De Witt Hyde, "The College Man and the College 
Woman," New York, 1906, p. 221. 



324 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

that the average annual income of graduates out of college 
over ten years, for those in the various vocations, was as 
follows : — 

i. Medicine $4687 

2. Law . 4577 

3. Journalism 4271 

4. Business 3790 

5. Banking 3718 

6. Government employment * 3230 

7. Miscellaneous 2867 

8. Education 2258 

9. Ministry 1559 

Average 3356 

To say that the average income of educators is 
about two thirds that of men of similar equipment in 
other vocations, while undoubtedly a fair statement 
as to the prevailing condition, is nevertheless an in- 
adequate statement, for the ambitious man is not 
willing to start out in life calling himself the "aver- 
age" man. The chances, it is true, are all in favor 
of his becoming an average man, but he would not 
become even that if he lacked the determination to 
excel the average. He may enter medicine and 
aspire to thousand-dollar fees; he may enter law 
and aspire to a fifty- thousand -dollar practice; he 
1 Presumably excluding teachers. 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PRINCIPALSHIP 325 

may enter business and aspire to untold wealth : at 
least, there is nothing in the premises to make his 
ambitions impossible of fulfillment. Or he may 
enter educational work and aspire to a three-thou- 
sand-dollar principalship or a five-thousand-dollar 
chair, or to a ten- thousand -dollar superintendency or 
college presidency; but he will not look forward to 
a twenty- thousand -dollar position, for the sufficiently 
convincing reason that there is none. It is quite 
evident that if the young man is eager for the chase 
of dollars, he will not pursue his quarry in the open 
fields of education. If he lacks this sporting inter- 
est and prefers a fairly assured and steady income, 
though a meager one, then may he turn his attention 
to teaching. If he reaches a principalship in a city 
system, he will be " fairly well" paid, but not " ex- 
actly" paid. It may be of interest to inquire why 
his pay is but moderate and why it is inexact. 

The organizing and administering ability of a 
thoroughly competent principal of a large city school 
is not rated at its full commercial value because the 
principal is the victim of one of the greatest monopo- 
lies in the world. The State has taken over the 
bulk of the schooling " business." If government 
kept its hands off entirely, as in the case of other 



326 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

businesses, there would be the same opportunity for 
the principal to "make money" as there is in those 
other vocations. 

For instance, an enterprising principal of a school of 
two thousand pupils, now paid, say, three thousand dollars, 
could capitalize his " plant," give better satisfaction to his 
"patrons" than he can now give, return a large interest on 
the capital, and make for himself from ten to twenty 
thousand dollars. 

The same qualifications that make him a good 
administrative principal would make him a good 
administrator in commercial lines where the income 
is much greater; he is, however, outside these lines 
of competition., Having once reached an adminis- 
trative position, he has spent too many years in 
technical training to be able to get into active com- 
petition with executive men outside his profession. 
Hence he is appraised, not at what he might have 
earned had he gone into the commercial field from 
the first, but at whatever sum he can wrest from a 
not too willing board of aldermen or board of edu- 
cation or State legislature. 

The salary of a city principal is inexact because of 
the state monopoly of education and also because of 
the size of the monopolistic system. Salaries are 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PRINCIPALSHIP 327 

necessarily fixed by schedules, and flat rates have to 
be made to cover a class. Thus all the principals 
in a system may be paid two thousand dollars. In 
reality, one principal may be worth to the city ten 
thousand dollars, and another, something with a 
minus sign before it; in the evening-up process, the 
best principals are underpaid and the poor ones 
overpaid. Were the same men employed in a com- 
petitive system, or even in a large corporation within 
which competition prevails, they would be rewarded 
more nearly in accord with their comparative merits. 
The teacher's annual salary is regarded as ample 
by the average citizen because he is prone to divide 
it by " working" hours and finds the hourly pay 
quite satisfying. He overlooks the fact that good 
teaching is not a matter of " hours," and also per- 
haps the fact so important to the teacher, namely, 
that he has to live, at some expense, during all the 
hours of the year. The educator is tempted, when 
this critical estimate of his salary is made, to try to 
reduce his service to the hourly basis and to supple- 
ment his income by employing, for financial profit, 
the extra hours he is supposed to squander. But 
this at best is unsatisfactory from every standpoint; 
it is a strain and a division of interest which must 



328 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

react unfavorably upon his school work. To relieve 
him from this temptation is one of the duties of 
salary- schedule makers ; and it is, after all, a strictly 
" business" proposition. 

It is evident, then, that the desirability of a prin- 
cipalship cannot wholly, if at all, depend upon its 
financial attractiveness. Having faced this unfeeling 
fact, let us next turn to the other " exception." 

" Unless one desires to pursue in a professorship 
some particular line of study." Financially con- 
sidered, the college instructorship and the principal- 
ship are about at a parity. The maximum salary 
may be reached in fewer years in the case of the 
principalship, and attainable salaries in the case of 
a very few professorships exceed those within reach 
of the principal. The element of monetary reward 
may then be eliminated in comparing the two offices, 
and what remains is chiefly the factor of personal 
preference. The professor works more intensively, 
the principal works more extensively ; the one works 
more logically, the other more pedagogically ; the 
one works nearer the ideal, the other works nearer 
the people; each is peculiarly restricted and cir- 
cumscribed, and each is peculiarly free. There is 
no disputing as to tastes ; and so the choice of these 



THE PRINCIPAL AND THE PRINCIPALSHIP 329 

two careers is to be determined by the ratio between 
the attractions of each and the personal coefficient 
of the elector. 

The main proposition of our quotation concerns 
the attractiveness of the principalship ; and it is 
"the most desirable of all educational positions" on 
several counts. 

"No other person in the school system can do so 
much good at first hand." 1 The influence of the 
principal is extensive and yet direct. Within the 
limits of his school building, he reaches each and 
every teacher and pupil, and reflects himself in them. 
His influence with the pupils is not so direct as that 
of the teacher, nor does it extend to so many pupils 
as does that of the superintendent; yet it is more 
satisfactorily direct than the superintendent's, and 
more satisfactorily extensive than the teacher's. 
The opportunities for intelligent service to pupils, 
teachers, and the community are unlimited. 

It yields, too, a more personal and, if you will, a 
more selfish satisfaction. The principal, presum- 
ably, is a student, with the instincts and habits and 
aspirations of the student; and it is doubtful if 
there is any other vocational position wherein these 

1 Dutton, " School Management ," p. 241. 



330 THE MANAGEMENT OF A CITY SCHOOL 

instincts can be given freer rein, these habits better 
trained, and these aspirations more nearly satisfied. 
The conscientious and observant principal will 
greatly appreciate the cultural value of his position. 
He touches life at many points : he is privileged daily 
to look into the minds of hundreds of children ; he 
studies closely the personalities, instructive in both 
their diversity and their unity, of many teachers ; he 
conducts himself with loyalty and courtesy, yet with- 
out sycophancy and deceit, in his dealings with 
officialdom; he exhibits the spirit of unaffected 
democracy in his intercourse with the visitors to his 
office : in short, his view epitomizes the whole range 
of human experience, and the comprehension and 
the sympathy of his insight are the measure of his 
own gain in true culture. 



APPENDIX 

QUESTIONS IN "SCHOOL MANAGEMENT" GIVEN IN 
VARIOUS CITIES IN EXAMINATIONS FOR PRIN- 
CIPAL'S LICENSE 



APPENDIX 

QUESTIONS IN " SCHOOL MANAGEMENT" GIVEN IN 
VARIOUS CITIES IN EXAMINATIONS FOR PRIN- 
CIPAL'S LICENSE 

Jersey City December 28, 1905. 

1. Why must regularity and punctuality of attendance 
be regarded as important in managing a school? What 
may be done by the teachers to secure them? By the 
principal ? 

2. Name the studies of the elementary school course in 
the order of their importance. Give reasons. 

3. Write a daily programme for grade 5A, assigning to 
each study and exercise its appropriate time. 

4. What should be the object of punishment? Name 
four improper punishments and show why they are 
improper. 

5. Mention the most important provisions of the com- 
pulsory school law. 

6. Describe in detail the most efficient system of venti- 
lation for a school of twenty class rooms. 

New Orleans September, 1906. 

1. "As is the teacher, so is the school." Explain the 
above expression and show what responsibilities on the 
part of the teacher are thereby implied. 

333 



334 APPENDIX 

2. What records besides those required by the rules do 
you think desirable to keep? 

3. What simple means can be utilized by the teacher 
and pupils to make the schoolroom attractive ? 

4. Name two purposes of discipline in the schoolroom. 

5. John Jones, one of your pupils, has misrepresented 
to his parents your treatment of him in school. The 
superintendent at the request of John's parents has 
written you asking for an explanation. Write a satis- 
factory report of the situation as it actually is. 

6. Give a good plan for dealing with (a) tardiness ; 
(b) whispering. 

7. Should there be a study period during the regular 
sessions of the school? Give reasons for your answer. 

8. How would you manage a "fire drill"? 

9. Which do you prefer, words or the percentage scale 
to designate the standing of pupils ? Give reasons. 

10. Name the advantages to teacher and to pupils of 
the daily preparation by the teacher of the lesson to be 
taught. 

New York September, 1904. 

1. A certain teacher took no interest in the teaching of 
arithmetic and manual training, in which subjects the 
work of the class was poor; she produced fine results in 
English and singing; the work in the other subjects was 
passable ; she seemed to make no efforts to take advantage 
of suggestions for improvement, being apparently indif- 



APPENDIX 335 

ferent to advice; her influence for good on the moral 
character of her pupils was remarkable. On a scale of A, 
excellent; B -f- , very good; C, poor; D, worthless, what 
rating would you give to this teacher at the end of the first 
year of service ? If she were retained for the second year, 
how would you treat the case? Give reasons. (15) 

2. If an assistant to principal were assigned to super- 
vising the teachers of the first three years of work, what 
are the points you would take into consideration in esti- 
mating the efficiency of her service: (a) as to teaching; 
(b) as to discipline? Give reasons. (16) 

3. State four causes of the lack of esprit de corps in a 
class ; in a school. State one distinctly appropriate means 
of improvement for each of these cases. (12) 

4. Describe two systems of grading and promoting 
pupils intended to advance them as rapidly as application, 
ability, and attainment will admit. Point out the weak 
and the strong points of each system. (14) 

5. Describe measures for promoting the safety of pupils 
in case of fire (a) as regards the equipment or material side 
of the school, and (b) the organization or work of the prin- 
cipal and the teachers. (12) 

6. (a) State four defects in the personality of some young 
teachers which lead to disorder in a class, (b) Treating 
each defect separately, prepare for such a teacher a set of 
suggestions designed to remedy the defects mentioned . (16) 

7. Describe three abnormal conditions of pupils. State 
distinctively appropriate treatment for each condition. (15) 



336 APPENDIX 

New York September, 1906. 

1. (a) Describe four actual or proposed methods of 
properly grading elementary schools, and (b) state the 
specific merits claimed for each system and the objections 
to each. (6) 

2. Describe two systems designed to bring about self- 
government of pupils, and (b) criticise with reasons each 
system. (8) 

3. Describe under the three heads, school organization, 
subjects of instruction, and discipline, the proper treat- 
ment of backward children. (15) 

4. (a) State the physical condition of fatigue (4) ; 
(6) describe four signs of fatigue (4) ; and (c) state four 
ways of preventing or relieving fatigue (4). 

5. Discuss the subject of home study in elementary 
schools, including the principal's duty in regard to home 
study. (12) 

6. What considerations should guide a principal in 
judging the work of (a) a teacher of German ; (b) a teacher 
of cooking. (10) 

7. "The teacher is often confronted in the schoolroom 
with an abnormal type of will. Nineteen times out of 
twenty it is best for the teacher to apperceive the case 
as one rf neural pathology rather than one of moral culpa- 
bility" — James. 

(a) Explain the italicized expressions. (5) (b) Criticise 
the statement. (5) (c) Tell, with reasons, what should 
be the aim of the teacher in a specified case. (5) 



APPENDIX 337 

8. The syllabus in history and civics for Grade 5B 
calls for the teaching of the provisions of the Compulsory 
Education Law and the duties of citizenship in regard to 
it. (a) What chief points should be presented in carrying 
out this work? (5) (b) How may the principal aid in 
this matter? (5) 

New York (Assistant to Principal) September, 1907. 

1. (a) State the principles that underlie an ideal sys- 
tem of promoting elementary pupils. (4) (b) Describe a 
practical system by which the pupils in the lower grades 
of a New York City elementary school may be promoted 
as fast as their ability will permit. (4) (c) Defend the 
system you have described. (4) 

2. Mention four games suitable to be played by first- 
year children at recess, and describe the method of playing 
two of them, indicating the part to be taken by the teacher. 

(4) 

3. Supposing the spirit and practice of dishonesty, e.g. 
cheating and stealing, to be rife in a class (or a school), 
describe how a principal (or assistant to principal) may 
deal effectively with the situation. (6) 

4. "That point of education which consists in teaching 
the mind to control its desires and inclinations is the most 
important of all." — Youmans. 

(a) Explain the meaning of control as here used. (2) 

(b) Describe the means to this end that may properly 
be employed in the elementary schools. (6) 



338 APPENDIX 

5. Explain the following terms: (a) the plenum- 
vacuum system (2) ; (b) the point of fatigue (1) ; (c) moral 
imbecile (1) ; (d) artificial incentive (1). 

6. Describe proper adjustment of seats and desks. (6) 

Chicago July, 1907. 

1. What are the pedagogical factors underlying music, 
drawing, manual training, for elementary school pupils ? 

2. Mention three common practices of teachers, inci- 
dental to school life, that violate the psychology of volition 
in children. Explain. 

3. Distinguish between habits that are acquired by 
focusing the attention on the processes involved and those 
that are incidentally learned, i.e. brought about by so- 
called marginal attention. Which of these modes of 
procedure should be emphasized for the following ob- 
jects: accuracy in spelling; " taste" in reading and 
"style" in composition; "form" in writing; ideals of 
cleanliness, industry, and honor? 

4. Discuss: "Corporal punishment and reward-giving 
as substitute for ability on the part of the teacher." 

Boston January, 1907. 

1. Approximately in what grade does the maintenance 
of discipline become most difficult, and why? 

2. Some principals require much marching in line; 
others require little or none. What justification has each ? 



APPENDIX 



339 



3. In what ways do teachers cause truancy among 
pupils ? 

4. What supplementary activities have you found to be 
most desirable in connection with elementary schools? 

5. Make a sample programme for an elementary school, 
such as to obtain the greatest amount of work with the 
least fatigue of pupils. 

Philadelphia September, 1906. 

1. Name some of the causes of disorder in the school- 
room and state briefly the remedies for these disorders. 

2. What are the essential characteristics of a good 
teacher? Which of these do you regard as of most im- 
portance, and why? 

3. How much attention should be given to the moral 
instruction of the child in the school? How should this 
moral instruction be given? 

4. State briefly how you would deal with 

(a) an impudent pupil ; (b) a disobedient pupil ; (c) an 
angry parent. 

5. Indicate the number of hours per week, out of a 
possible twenty-five hours, you would devote to (a) read- 
ing in first-year classes; (6) mathematics in fifth-year 
classes; (c) geography and history in eighth-year classes 
(classes preparing to enter high schools). In each case 
explain why you would give the subject the time you 
indicate. 



INDEX 



(Authorities cited are printed in Small Capitals.) 



Absence, 290. 
Addresses of pupils, 55. 
Adjustment of principal to his 

position, 317. 
Adler, Felix, 8, 250, 253, 261. 
Administration, two departments of, 

. . 59 " 
Administrative assistants, 118. 

authority of principal, 31, 66. 

teacher, 83, 255. 

Admission of pupils, 178. 

Adolescence and discipline, 246. 

Adolescent girls, 164. 

Agents and the schools, 54. 

Albany, school board, 59. 

Alumni associations, 307. 

Appeal, right of, principal's, 71. 

pupil's, 197. 

teacher's, 86. 

Appropriation for supplies, 133. 

Arithmetic tests, 225. 

Arizona, Board of Education, 24. 

Arsenal School, plan of government, 

285^ 

Art and science of education, 21. 

Assembly and fixing ideals, 305. 

room, 123. 

Assignment of lessons, 214. 

pupils to grade, 179. 

teachers, 78. 

Assistants, principal's, 117. 

Associations, alumni, 307. 

parents', 42. 

Athletics, 306. 

Atlanta, school board, 59. 



Atmosphere, school, 254, 304. 

Attendance, 290. 

Attractiveness of the principalship, 

3 2 9- 
Authorities, the, 6. 

the principal and the, 

58. 
three classes of, 59. 

Bagley, William Chandler, 20, 
98, 100, 124, 131, 208, 210, 
212, 215, 217, 220, 236, 247, 
251, 253, 270, 285, 292, 298, 

3°3- 
Bailey, Burrage and, 122, 141, 159. 
Bain, Alexander, 222. 
Baker, Smith, 99, 161. 
Baldwin, Joseph, 76, 216. 
Balliet, Thomas M., 249, 266. 
Baltimore, rules cited, 140. 
Barnes, Earl, 66. 
Barnett, P. A., 37, 117, 221. 
Batavia system, 182. 
Biology and discipline, 246. 

"order," 266. 
Board, School, title of, 25. 
Board of Education, title of, 25. 
Boards of education, 59. 
Body-strain, preventing, 155. 
Books, free, 129. 
Boston, Business Agent, 61. 

examination paper, 338. 

School Committee, quoted, 
67, 307. 

superintendents, 63. 



341 



342 



INDEX 



Brumbaugh, M. G., 199, 21.1. 
Building, the school, 122. 
Burnham, W. H., 122. 
BuRRAGEand Bailey, 122, 141, 159. 
Business bureaus, the principal and 
the, 61. 
Director, the, 61. 
Butler, Nicholas Murray, 10, 
21, 22. 

Call, Arthur Deerin, 304. 
Cambridge plan of grading, 181. 
Canvassers in schools, 54. 
Care of classrooms, 152. 
pupils, 144, 187. 
supplies, 134. 
Carnegie, Andrew, 12. 
Carroll, Clarence F., 212. 
"Cases" of discipline, 267. 
Chancellor, William Estabrook, 
1, 40, 46, 60, 63, 71, 77, 322. 
Chicago, examination paper, 338. 

superintendents, 63. 
Choice of teacher, 76. 
Cincinnati, rules cited, 198. 
Circulation of air, 127. 
City, relation of, to the State, 25. 

the School, 284. 
Civics, the teaching of, 288. 
Clarke, Dr., 165. 
Class, defined, vi. 

in action, the, 113. 
size of, 181. 
Classification of supplies, 133. 
Class-room equipment, 186. 
work, 205. 

by the prin- 
cipal, 315. 
Class rooms, care of, 152. 
regular, 124. 
Clergy, the, and society, 14. 
Clerical assistants, 117. 
Cleveland, Director of Schools, 61. 
rules, cited, 54, 102, 268, 
302. 



Cleveland, superintendents, 63. 
"Closed" book list, 130. 
College president and society, 16. 
Commendation cards, 104. 
Committee, School, title of, 25. 
Committee of Fifteen, cited, 59. 
Conduct of pupils in halls, 171. 
Conferences, teachers', 88, 90, no. 
Constructive work, 218. 
Contagious diseases, 159. 
Content studies, the, and tests, 226. 
Contract, the principal's, 25. 
Conventions and discipline, 249. 

social, 299. 
Cooking rooms, 123. 
Cooperation of parents, 36. ■ 
Corporal punishment, 176, 279. 
Correlation, 103. 

Correspondence, the principal's, 50. 
Courage and courtesy, 317. 
Course of Study, interpretation of, 

91. 
Crane, Ichabod, 30 
Criticism, 90. 
Cultural value of the principalship, 

33°- 

Daily schedule, 96, 209. 
Decoration, 140. 
Deduction, 220. 
Defectives, mental, 163. 
Defects, physical, 161. 
Democracy and discipline, 245. 
Denver, School Board, 59. 
Departmental plan, 183. 
Department of Health, 159. 
Dependent work of pupils, 211. 
Despotism and discipline, 245. 
Detail, grasp of, by principal, 312. 
Detailed supervision by superin- 
tendent, 65. 
Detention of pupils, 268. 
Directions and suggestions, 86. 
Director of Schools, 61. 
Directors, School, title of, 25. 



INDEX 



343 



Direct radiation, 126. 
Discipline, 242. 

a natural problem, 243. 
and departmental plan, 189. 
dismissal of pupils, 146. 
leaving the room, 168. 
parents, 268, 276. 
principal's authority, 253. 
probation, 276. 
teachers, 260. 
truancy, 299. 
vertical supervision, 120. 
a philosophy of, 244. 
note forms, 269. 
records, 282. 
Disease, contagious, 159. 
Dismissal, emergency, 172. 

of pupils during ses- 
sion, 144. 
Distribution of report cards, 194. 
"Doing" habits, 217. 
Donalson, Henry Herbert, 100. 
Drawing as a habit, 218. 

teachers, 116. 
Drill and discipline, 248. 
Dull pupil and promotion, 199. 
Dunton, Larkin, 212, 213, 302. 
Duties, legal, of the principal, 30. 
Dutton, Samuel T., 66, 76, 213, 
215, 216, 303, 329. 

Edson, Supt., 77. 
Education, a liberal, 13. 

art and science of, 21. 

state monopoly of, 325. 
Educational policy and the prin- 
cipal, 24. 
values, 197. 
Educator a skeptic, 22. 
Elementary school, defined, vi. 
Eliot, Dr., and society, 16. 
Elizabeth plan of grading, 182. 
Elliot, Edward C, 26. 
Emergency dismissals, 172. 
Entrance and exit of pupils, 169. 



Environment and truancy, 297. 
of pupils, 260. 
of the school, 20. 
Equipment of class rooms, 186. 

the material, 121. 
Errors, the principal and his, 32. 
Esprit-de-corps, 254, 303. 
Evolution and discipline, 245. 
Examinations, 214. 
Exceptional case, importance of 

the, 44. 
Executive ability, 310. 
Exhibits, school, 40. 
Exit of pupils, 169. 

single, from room, 177. 
Ex parte judgment by principal, 90. 
superintend- 
ent, 68. 
Expression and impression, 212. 
Extra-contractual obligation, 15, 28. 
Eye-strain, preventing, 156. 

Facts and principles, 220. 
Family spirit in school, 190. 
Farrtngton,Frederic Ernest,309. 
Fatigue and inattention, 209. 

normal, 98. 

pathological, 161. 
Feeling and discipline, 250. 
Felter, William L., 131. 
Financial returns in the professions, 

323- 
Fire drill, 27, 172. 
Forget, ability of principal to, 312. 
Framing of pictures, 143. 
Free books, 129. 
play, 167. 

General care of pupils, 144. 
duty and ideals, 34. 

principal's, 58. 
obligations of principal, 17. 
relation of the principal to 
State, 9. 
Geography tests, 231. 



344 



INDEX 



Gilbert, Charles B., i, 37, 114, 
121, 215, 223, 242, 248, 283. 

Gill system of pupil government, 283. 

Girls, adolescent, 164. 

Grade conference, 90. 
denned, vi. 

Grading of pupils, 179. 

Grammar test, 226. 

Grievance, the parent with a, 43. 

Group conference, 90. 

method in the class room, 
124, 183. 

Growth and discipline, 249. 

principal's personal, 320. 

Gymnasium, 123. 

Gymnastics, as a habit, 218. 

Habits, 299. 

two forms of, 217. 
working, of the principal, 

3"- 

Habit tests, 217. 

Hangman, as an illustration, 28. 
Headship, administrative, of prin- 
cipal, 66. 
teacher, 83. 
Health, Department of, 159. 
Heating and ventilating, 126, 153. 
Henderson, C. Hanford, 322. 
Henderson, Charles Richmond, 

163. 
Heredity and truancy, 297. 
History tests, 228, 233. 
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 250, 

252. 
Home and habits, 300. 
truancy, 298. 

study, regulation, of, 157. 
Horizontal supervision, 119. 
Howland, George, v, 300. 
Hyde, William De Witt, 323. 



Ideals, 



principal's expression of his, 
34- 



Ideal teacher, the, 76. 
Illinois law cited, 25. 
Illness of pupils, 145. 
Impression and expression, 212. 
Inattention, 209. 

Independence, principal's, and par- 
ents, 36. 
Independent work of pupils, 211. 
Indianapolis, Business Director, 61. 

rules cited, 32, 176. 

School Board, 59. 
Individual and mass teaching, 180. 

conference, 90. 
Induction, 220. 

Inexactness of principal's salary, 326. 
Inspection of pupils' ratings, 195. 

teachers, formal, 113. 
Institution, the school as an, 20. 
Instructions to janitors, 152. 
teachers, 86. 
Intellect and discipline, 248. 
Interpretation of course of study, 91. 
Interviews with parents, 51. 
Inventory of supplies, 135. 

Janitor and principal, 27, 152. 
Jenks, Jeremiah W., 130. 
Jersey City, examination paper, 333. 
rules cited, 32, 89, 135, 

140, 268. 
school board, 59. 
Journals, school, 307. 
Judging, the act of, 220. 
Judgment and memory, 219. 
test, 225. 

Kansas City, superintendents, 63. 

Kennedy, Supt., 182. 

Kilpatrick, Van Evrie, 190. 

Kindergarten, 124. 

Kipling, 78. 

Kirk, Hyland C, 320. 

Labor and society, 11. 
Laissez-faire economics, 9. 



INDEX 



345 



Lateness, 290. 

Lawyer, the, and society, 15. 

Leaving the room during session, 
168. 

Legal relation of the principal to his 
school, 26. 
status of the principal, 29. 

Lessons, assignment of, 214. 
model, 108. 

Letters from parents, 46. 

of recommendation, 256. 

Liberal education, a, 13. 

Limitations, legal, of the principal, 
32. 

Literature, test in, 226. 

Locomotive engineer, as an illus- 
tration, 73. 

Loose construction, 72. 

Louisville rules cited, 31, 34, 51, 54, 
148, 280, 286, 292. 

Loyalty of principal to superin- 
tendent, 64. 

Lyon, Supt., 77. 

Machine, the school as a, 315. 
"Making" habits, 217. 
Mass and individual teaching, 180. 
Material equipment, 121. 
Maxwell, Supt., 164, 285. 
McCloskey, Margaret, 208. 
McMurry, Chas. A. and Frank 

M., 217. 
Medical inspection, 159. 
Meetings, parents', 40. 
teachers', 88. 
Memory and judgment, 219. 

test, 222. 
Mental defectives, 163. 
Messengers, pupils as, 149. 
Methods, securing uniform, 102. 
Millionnaire, the, and society, 11. 
Milwaukee rules cited, 321. 
Minneapolis rules cited, 89, 153, 
321. 
school board, 59. 



Model lessons, 108. 
Monitorial supervision, 286. 
Monopoly of education, State, 325. 
Moral development of pupils, 242. 
Morrison, Gilbert B., 128. 
Motives, neglect of, 214. 
secondary, 266. 
Moulton, Edwin F., 31. 
Music teachers, 116. 
Myers, George Edmund, 41, 263. 

Newark rules cited, 140, 268. 

New Orleans, examination paper, 

333- 
New school, organizing a, 317. 

teacher, the, 206. 
New York City, by-laws cited, 31, 
15, 164, 268, 
321. 
class cited, moni- 
tors, 287. 
examination pa- 
pers, 334. 
school board, 59. 
special grades, 183. 
superintendents, 63, 

159- t 
State, education depart- 
ment, 142. 
law cited, t>3- 
Norfolk school board, 59. 

Obligations of educator, 15. 
"Open" book list, 130. 
Opportunity and responsibility, 10. 
Oral criticism, 90. 

instructions, 88. 

tests, 216. 
Order, definition of, 212, 249, 266. 
Orders and suggestions, 86. 
Organizing a new school, 317. 

Palmer, George Herbert, 77. 
Parent, the unreasonable, 45. 
with a grievance, 43. 



34^ 



INDEX 



Parents and discipline, 268, 276. 

principal's independ- 
ence, 36. 
report cards, 194. 
the principal, 35. 
Parents' associations, 42. 
letters, 47. 
meetings, 40. 

request for pupils' dismis- 
sal, 147. 
Parker, Col. F. W., 67. 
Partial character of tests, 223. 
Pathological fatigue, 161. 
Paton, J. L., 274. 
Payne, William H., 66, 75, 85, 

in, 253. 
Pedagogy and law, 26. 
Pediculosis capitis, 160. 
People, the, as source of authority, 

58. 
Personal growth of the principal, 
320. 
qualities of the teacher 
for discipline, 261. 
Philadelphia, examination paper, 

339- m 
form cited, 160. 
rules cited, 31, 290. 
school board, 59. 
superintendents, 6^. 
Philosophy of discipline, 244. 

the principal a student 
of, 322. 
Physical defects, 161. 

and discipline, 277. 
truancy, 297. 
development, 166. 
protection of pupils, 152. 
welfare of pupils, 144. 
Physician, the, and society, 14. 
Pictures, 142. 

Plan and progress records, 94. 
Planning quality, 102. 
quantity, 91. 
Plans for grading of pupils, 181. 



Plenum circulation, 127. 
Preparatory study, 213. 
Preventive measures in discipline, 

254. 
Principal and authorities, 58. 

business bureaus, 61. 

discipline cases, 270. 

educational policy, 24. 

his fitness, 18, 309. 
legal limitations, 

32; 

opinions, 23. 
own errors, 32. 
interpretation of or- 
ders, 72. 
letters fromparents,47. 
parents, 35. 
public, 35. 
pupils, 121. 
school board, 60. 
superintendent, 63. 
teachers, 75. 
the State, 8, 43. 
as administrative head, 
31, 66. 
institutional head, 20. 
professional expert, 

21. 
teacher, 18, 309, 315. 
a student of philosophy, 

322. 
defined, v. 

in service of all pupils, 57. 
must keep his balance, 23. 
Principal's adjustment to his posi- 
tion, 317. 
assistants, 117. 
attitude toward teachers, 

S3- 

contract, 25. 

correspondence, 50. 

general obligations, 17, 
58, 71, 130, 322. 

independence, and par- 
ents, 36. 



INDEX 



347 



Principal's personal growth, 320. 

twofold relation to the 

State, 9. 
ultimate disciplinary au- 
thority, 253. 

Principalship and professorship, 328. 
attractiveness of, 329. 
cultural value of, 330. 
salary of, 323. 
the principal and the, 

7, 3°9- 
Principles and facts, 220. 
Probation and discipline, 276. 
Professional growth of principal, 

321. 
Professions, the, 12. 
Profession, teaching should be a, 17. 
Professorship and principalship, 

328. 
Programme, daily, 96. 

departmental, 
188. 
Progress, plan and, records, 94. 

scholastic, of pupils, 178. 
Promotion of pupils, 196. 
and tests, 240. 
Proportion, a sense of, 313. 
Providence, rules cited, 279, 280, 

296, 306. 
Psychology and discipline, 246. 
Public, the principal and the, 35. 
Pueblo, grading plan, 182. 
Pugsley, Fremont L., 144. 
Punctuality, 290. 
Punishment, 274. 

corporal, 279. 
Pupil self-government, 283. 
Pupils, admission of, 178. 

and damage to supplies, 

139- 
as messengers, 149. 
detention of, 268. 
entrance and exit of, 169. 
general care of, 144. 
grading of, 179. 



Pupils, not worked enough, 212. 

personal care of, 187. 

physical protection of, 152. 

principal and the, 121. 

promotion of, 196. 

raising hands, 213. 

rating of, 192. 

reduction in grade of, 201. 

schools exist for, 6, 62. 

teachers' responsibility for, 
254- 
Pupils' addresses, 55. 

moral development, 242. 

physical welfare, 144. 

right of appeal, 197. 

scholastic progress, 178. 

unsatisfactory work, 104. 

work, quality of, 103. 

Qualifications of principal, 309. 
Qualitative planning, 102. 
Quantitative planning, 91. 
Question papers, pupils' tests, 226. 
principals' exam- 
inations, 333. 

Radiation, direct, 126. 

Raising of hands by pupils, 213. 

Rating of pupils, 192. 
teachers, 112. 

Ray plan of pupil government, 284. 

Reading as a habit, 217. 

Recesses, 166. 

Recitation, the, 212. 

Recommendation, letters of, 256. 

Records, plan and progress, 94. 

Reduction of pupil in grade, 201. 

Relation of principal to school is 
legal, 26. 
State, two- 
fold, 9. 

Relaxation and work, 210. 

Report cards, 193. 

Requisitioning supplies, 132. 

Responsibility and opportunity, 10. 



348 



INDEX 



Rest and relaxation, 210. 
Rewards, 295. 

Richmond, rules cited, 129, 193, 
265, 279, 286. 
school board, 59. 
Right, doing the, 247. 
Rights, legal, of the principal, 30. 
Rochester, rules cited, 268, 296. 

school board, 59. 
Rooms, regular and special, 123. 
Rowe, Stuart H., 99, 122, 132, 
145, 157, 161, 209, 268, 277. 

St. Louis, cited, 27, 135, 140, 148, 
277. 
superintendents, 63. 
Salary of principalship, 323. 
San Francisco, school board, 59. 

superintendents, 63. 
Scholastic progress of pupils, 178. 
School a continuous process, 243. 

and its environment, 20. 

as an institution, 20. 

belongs to the people, 39. 

boards, as authority, 58. 
the principal and the, 60. 

building, the, 122. 

city, 284. 

Committee, title of, 25. 

conference, 89. 

denned, vi. 

exhibits, 40. 

family spirit of, 190. 

spirit, 303. 

the, as a machine, 315. 
large, 4. 
"Schoolitis," 81. 
Schools exist for the pupils, 62. 

use of, for commercial ends, 
54- 

visiting, 81. 
Schurman, J. G., 67. 
Science and art of education, 21. 
Scripture, E. W., 98. 
Search, Dr., 182. 



Secondary motives, 266. 
Seeley, Levi, 292. 
Selection of supplies, 131. 
Self-government, 245. 

schemes, 283. 
Sewing, a habit, 218. 
teachers, 116. 
Shaw, Edward R., 122, 132, 157, 

i59. 
Shearer, Supt., 182. 
Singing, a habit, 218. 
Size of classes, 181. 
Small, Supt., 125. 
Smiley, Mr., 305. 
Social conventions, 299. 
Society and labor, 11. 

the college president, 
16. 
the principal's special rela- 
tion to, 24. 
Sociology and discipline, 245. 
Soldan, F. Louis, 63. 
Specialists, teachers as, 184. 
Special relation, the principal's, to 
society, 24. 
teachers, 116. 
Spelling as habit, 218. 
Spencer, Herbert, 244, 252. 
State monopoly of education, 325. 
relation of, to city, 25. 
the, and the principal, 6, 8, 

43- 
Still alarm for dismissal, 174. 
Strict construction, 72. 
Study period, 213. 

regulation of home, 157. 
Subdivision of term's work, 92. 
Substitutes and departmental plan, 

189. 
Suggestions and orders, 86. 
Sumner, William Graham, 10. 
Superintendent, the principal and 
the, 63. 
problems of 
the, 2.. 



INDEX 



349 



Supervision by monitors, 286. 

horizontal and vertical, 
119. 
Supervisor defined, v. 
Supervisory assistants, 118. 
Supplementary study, 213. 
Supplies, 129. 

care of, 134. 

requisitioning, 132. 

selection of, 131. 
Suspension of pupils, 279. 
System, 5, 314. 

Tardiness, 290. 

Tax on mental and moral wealth, 

11. 
Taxpayer and the principal's salary, 

44. 
Teacher as disciplinarian, 260. 
choice of, 76. 

principal should be a, 309. 
product of two factors, 77. 
the ideal, 76. 

incompetent, 83. 
negative, 83. 
neglectful, 82. 
new, 80, 206. 
Teacher's administrative authority, 
83. 255. 
preparation of her work, 

261. 
right of appeal, 86. 
Teachers, assignment of, 78. 
as specialists, 184. 
attitude of principal to- 
ward, 83. 
duty of principal to, 79. 
instructions to, 86. 
rating of, 112. 
special, 116. 
talk too much, 212. 
the, and supplies, 135. 
the principal and the, 75. 
three kinds of, 81. 
Teachers' meetings, 88. 



Teachers' rating of pupils, 195. 

responsibility for pupils, 

254. 
work, planning, 91. 
Teaching as a profession, 15, 17. 

testing, 237. 
Temperature and inattention, 209. 

regulation of, 154. 
Term's work, subdivision of, 92. 
Test papers, 226. 
the habit, 217. 

judgment, 225. 
memory, 223. 
Tests, 115, 214. 

and promotions, 240. 

as used by principal, 237. 

teacher, 234. 
three kinds of, 217. 
Text-books, choice of, 131. 

misuse of, 214. 
Thermostatic control, 126. 
Time schedule, departmental, 188. 
Tompkins, Arnold, 18. 
Training feeling, 256. 
intellect, 248. 
will, 252. 
Trial promotion, 200. 
Truancy, 295. 

Uniform methods, securing, 102. 
University president, the, and so- 
ciety, 16. 
Unreasonable parent, the, 45. 
Unsatisfactory work, pupils', 104. 

Vaccination, illustration, 33. 
Vacuum method of circulation, 127. 
Ventilation and heating, 126, 153. 

inattention, 209. 
Vertical supervision, 119. 
Visitation of other schools, 81, 321. 
Visitors to the school, 35. 

Walker, Francis, 157, 159, 161. 
Wall decoration, 142. 



3$o 



INDEX 



Waste in class administration, 208. 
Water hammer, 154. 
Wealth, mental and moral, n. 
Weariness and inattention, 209. 
Welfare, physical, of pupils, 144. 
White, Emerson E., 76, 215. 
Will, training, 252. 
Wilson, Woodrow, 8. 
Worcester, rules cited, 130, 167, 286. 
school board, 59. 



Work and relaxation, 210. 

Working pupils, 263. 

Work of the class room, 205. 

term, subdivision of, 
92. 
Workshops, 123. 
Writing as habit, 218. 
Written criticism, 90. 

home work, 157. 

instructions, 87. 



MM 33 1908 



' 



K 



